


Replay

by KivaTaliana



Series: Ripples In Space And Time [5]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: AU Countrycide, AU series, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-04 00:42:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6634177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KivaTaliana/pseuds/KivaTaliana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set in 'Ripples In Space And Time' Jack and the team go to investigate strange happenings out in the countryside.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

As Jack drove he listened with half an ear to Owen droning on, complaining about the trip into the countryside. It wasn’t like Jack had deliberately planned it; there was just something to investigate. Besides, if it came to nothing they had all had a bit of time together. 

It gave Jack a few days to think about them all, as they were now. Things had changed. Ianto’s almost permanent move had done something towards that. But Jack had other feelings about it. As if something still wasn’t right. 

Someone, or something, was out there, trying to put a jigsaw in place just by forcing the pieces together, whether they fit or not. The rift reacted at odd times. Technology couldn’t tell him but Jack knew that the reaction related to the odd taste in the air. It came from the rift but he could feel it anywhere. He dreaded what would happen when the universe put itself right but at the same time he knew it would bring his greatest desire. 

However, for now, he was stuck listening to Owen rant about how awful the countryside was. Suzie had stopped listening. She had activated the computer behind the driver’s seat and she was busy working, her fingers tapping against the keyboard. Now and again she commented to Toshiko sat next to her. 

Toshiko sat in the middle of the backseat, looking around, trying to listen to Suzie and also Owen, trying to find some kind of common ground with him. Jack wished that would happen but Owen was better off with Suzie as a bed partner. But where did that leave Tosh. Stuck in the middle as usual, quite fitting she was sat there now. 

Jack let his gaze, as he flicked a look over his shoulder, stray to Ianto. Since they had left Cardiff he hadn’t commented on anything. All he had done was look out of the window, his eyes scanning the passing scenery. He seemed happy and settled enough. 

Ianto had returned to Cardiff and three times in the last three months had dutifully gone to London to deliver a report. One that he and Ianto had worked out carefully each time. London probably guessed by now that Jack was feeding the information but unless they removed Ianto, or sent someone along with him, they were forced to carry on the game. 

It suited Jack. If they knew what he was doing it was far less stressful for him. 

And Ianto's assimilation into the team had been easy. Owen was much the same but still displayed a level of sympathy. He could do that well enough; Jack knew what Owen had gone through. Owen would probably never talk to anyone about it but he knew how to handle someone in a similar situation. 

Toshiko was naturally nice. She couldn’t help that. So she was nice to Ianto. Sympathetic and kind and she also felt wary of demanding anything of him, even though it was turning out to be part of his job. She was always ever so polite about it, apologising when she asked for anything. 

Suzie dismissed Ianto utterly. She didn’t even seem to register his presence other than to now and again demand coffee. 

Out of all of them Jack thought that Ianto found Suzie the easiest to handle. And that was because she hardly looked at him. Her mind was on the glove, although Ianto knew nothing about that. The last thing Jack wanted was Ianto knowing about a power to bring someone back, however brief that might be. And Suzie still didn’t trust Ianto. Although she dismissed him, she watched him ever so carefully. 

No, that didn’t matter, Jack thought. Ianto could cope with it. It was probably the way that Torchwood 1 employee’s got treated. The more he watched it, the more that Jack thought that was the case. Which was why, two days ago, he had phone Yvonne Hartman and told her that Ianto couldn’t come on his designated days. Instead he would be helping them on an investigation. He would come in two weeks time. 

As he talked he realised what had happened. Between him and Yvonne, Ianto had been wrangled over like a child in a custody battle. It was almost silly the way they were both behaving. But neither of them could seem to help it. Jack wanted to keep Ianto and Yvonne didn’t like him being there. Ianto gave them nothing much in return. 

Jack let him live in his house. Ianto had tided up a bit but showed no sign of making it a permanent fixture. He was as good as his word. All he wanted to do was think. Flowers were placed weekly at Lisa’s place in the morgue and that was the extent of the investigation. Jack always found an excuse to not look. The police had also hit a dead end, despite the two similar attacks prior to Lisa, there had been nothing since. 

“I’m hungry!” Owen snapped. 

“That looks like a burger place there,” Ianto said. 

“Who’d put a burger place there?” Owen snapped. 

“Someone that expected you,” Ianto said pleasantly carrying on the banter. Jack as he turned his full attention back to the road, rather than driving automatically, not really paying attention, and realised that there was in fact a small caravan placed up on the crest of the hill, offering food. 

It seemed a logical place to stop, so he could run through exactly what they were investigating.

* * * * * 

Jack bizarrely found himself enjoying the afternoon. Helping Ianto and Toshiko put the tents up. He hadn’t actually planned to get involved but somehow it had worked out that way. Suzie had placed herself in a position where she was helping but hardly doing any menial work. Instead she was checking the equipment, organising the supplies. 

Owen, well, Owen ended up sulking. Camping was definitely not his thing. He had sulked and whined all morning and now in the afternoon he had annoyed everyone. Especially Tosh. 

It had only been meant as a joke, a silly pun but Owen’s reply was so bad even Suzie seemed annoyed by it. It was Ianto, however, who had stepped to the rescue and had ended up distracting Tosh while they hammered in the tent pegs. Something that seemed to require an overly vigorous amount of hammering and a good deal of giggling, and what looked like flirting. 

Jack could hardly be called someone who got jealous easily but watching them together tightened something in Jack’s body. He knew Ianto was slowly putting himself back together, picking up the pieces of his badly fractured heart but Jack was panicked by the idea that somewhere along the line Ianto would move on, away from him. 

That was all the point of Ianto’s thinking time, in Cardiff, wasn’t it? his mind asked him. Jack had just hoped, he kept hoping, the longer Ianto stayed, that he would choose to stay in Cardiff. Hadn’t he already chosen, in a way? It was where he had wanted to come after all the disaster had happened. 

All that had run through Jack’s mind, so he’d been coerced by his own paranoia into helping put up the tents. 

“Go on then Tosh,” Ianto said with a grin. She had set up the peg to hammer in holding the mallet deftly in her right hand. Rolling her eyes she thought, putting an awful lot of over-acting into it. 

“My ex-boyfriend,” she said, and then proceeded to give the tent peg several good wallops. 

“That’s the fourth time you’ve hammered your ex-boyfriend,” Ianto said. 

“If we did that with all my ex-boyfriends, we’d have a line of tents to Cardiff and back again,” Jack said, tightening the ropes as the wind pulled the tent a little. Ianto turned his head and looked at Jack, in an amused and slightly cynical way. 

“Why the fuck do we have to camp anyway?” Owen bellowed kicking at the tent as he passed it. 

“People are going missing around here, do you really want to be in a place run by strangers,” Jack said again. 

“I hate this!” Owen added. 

“No other race in the universe goes camping, celebrate your own uniqueness!” Jack said. “Give me that!” he added to Tosh as they reached the next peg. “It’s my go.” 

“Is that Owen then?” Ianto asked. 

“No, an ex-boyfriend, Owen reminds me of him a little. There was this one time…” 

And Jack was off. The tents got put up in record time despite Ianto and Toshiko being unable to do much they were laughing so hard. Owen guessing that somehow he was part of the ridicule stormed off to get some firewood. Suzie, after a moment, said she’d go with him. 

Jack and Ianto both watched Toshiko’s face drop slightly. 

So Jack started again. This time the response was less enthusiastic but he did his best. If nothing else it was nice to see Ianto hysterical with laughter, forgetting even for that short time what disasters had brought him here. 

Jack’s grin and banter faded as Suzie called him on the com. Jack listened for a moment and then looked around. 

“Tosh?” he inclined his head and she got the hint immediately. Ianto looked up, pausing from hammering in the penultimate tent peg. Jack’s mind idled for a moment before it made its decision. Whatever Suzie and Owen had found it sounded like Ianto shouldn’t see it. Certainly not after being so traumatized by the sight of his girlfriend’s body at a crime scene. 

“Ianto, stay here.” 

In response Ianto nodded. The flush on his face faded as he suddenly realised the serious turn the afternoon had taken. He glanced back at what he was doing and then looked back up. Jack managed a reassuring smile and he patted Ianto’s shoulder. Ianto smiled fleetingly in response, then he watched with a growing sense of apprehension as Jack and Tosh headed off, pausing to grab some equipment out of the back of the SUV before they disappeared off into the woods. 

And Jack felt very right in his decision as he watched Owen carefully examine the corpse. What was left of it anyway. It was nothing more than a carcass, riddled with maggots. All the banter of the day was gone, and their irritations and hurt forgotten. This was business. 

“Is there any chance of knowing what killed him?” Jack asked. They should have brought a body bag as well. One of them would have to walk back for it. The most convenient, practical, thing would have been to radio Ianto but Jack wasn’t about to have him walking in on this. 

“Do the weevils come out this far?” Toshiko asked. Suzie shook her head.

“It’s not a weevil, they don’t take off that much flesh. They kill almost for the fun of it, like a fox taking off a chicken’s head.” 

“Lovely description,” Owen muttered still grovelling on the floor by the corpse, trying to find something, anything to give him a hint. 

“But accurate,” Jack said. “No weevil finishes off its food like this.” 

“I can’t think of anything that we’ve encountered that does,” Suzie said. She looked up at Jack. “Ianto’s been in the archives; maybe he’s come across something that could be similar.” 

Jack tensed slightly. Again someone would have to ask Ianto, without him seeing it. Before Jack could answer however there was the roar of an engine. He turned his head, sensing the direction immediately. 

“That’s the SUV!” Suzie announced, for once startled. She shared a look with Jack. Both of them moved at the same time, running off back to the camp. Toshiko followed along in their wake. 

They ran to the campsite just in time to see the SUV drive over one of the tents and then off out of the campsite. Jack gritted his teeth as he gave a futile chase, watching the SUV crest a hill and then disappear. It reached the road and then screeched away, he had no chance of stopping it. 

His lungs were burning as he gasped for breath watching with a level of despair as the black vehicle disappeared from view. 

“Great,” Suzie announced in irritation. “Who left the keys in it?” 

“Well,” Toshiko thought about it. “I don’t know, but it didn’t matter because…” 

The next word in her sentence was stolen by Jack, who bellowed at the top of his voice. “Ianto!” 

“Was here,” Toshiko finished the sentence a little warily looking around and waiting for a reply to Jack’s holler. 

Jack wasn’t surprised when there was no response. All they got in return was silence. 

“Did anyone see anything?” Owen asked as he eventually caught up. He panted, a little out of breath. 

“That body in the woods had to be a diversion. Someone’s driven off with the SUV, all our equipment…” Suzie snapped. 

“And Ianto!” Jack said in a voice that reminded them which thing was most important. His stomach churned with a cold sensation of dread. Whatever was out there, whatever they were investigating, it now had Ianto. 

XxxxxxxxxxX

Ianto kept his breathing steady as the SUV again hit bumpy ground. If he wasn’t pretending to be unconscious he’d be inclined to start criticising the driving, God alone knew what they were doing to the vehicle’s suspension. He tried not to make too much noise as he bounced around in the boot and slowly he tried to make some sense of what just happened, ten... fifteen… twenty minutes ago. He’d lost track of time. 

Jack and the others had left. Ianto guessed it wasn’t pretty and Jack hadn’t wanted him to see it. Ianto wasn’t going to argue with that. Instead he had concentrated on putting the last tent peg in and securing the rope. And as he had been concentrating on that, he had felt a sharp pull from the other end of the tent when another hard gust of wind caught it. 

Turning round he had seen the end rope flying in the wind, having come loose from the peg. At least at the time that was what he had thought had happened. Now he knew otherwise. It had to be his kidnappers had pulled it free, to draw him to that end. Because that’s what he had immediately done. Without thinking there was a danger. 

With a sigh of irritation he had gone back and was concentrating on tying the rope back when there had been the sound of swift footsteps. Ianto hadn’t looked up until the last minute. Again in sheer innocence he just assumed it was one of the others coming back for something. 

It wasn’t until the shadow passed over him that he looked up. Just in time to see a figure closing in, with just one step to go, their arm raised and already on the downswing. It was so swift Ianto couldn’t do anything. He recoiled back slightly but the blow still caught him on the side of the head, directly on his temple. He had fallen to the side automatically, the momentum of the blow taking him down. 

That was when some level of cunning and instinct had taken over. His immediate reaction was a desire to struggle up and fight. But he realised in that split second as he hit the ground that would result in another blow. So he had stayed down, remaining limp on the floor, giving the impression he was unconscious, or at least so severely stunned that he wasn’t about to get up again.

In the blur as he had fallen, he had spotted another figure behind him. That quick glance was what told him that staying down was a better idea. He didn’t know what they were planning but he was better off conscious. It was easier to plan, to think and escape when you were conscious. 

To that end, he had remained limp when a cloth bag had been pulled over his head and the two figures had lifted him, rather roughly manhandling him towards the SUV. He could have tried to call out, but he wasn’t sure how far away Jack was, or if he would hear. The wind could carry his voice towards or away. And in the time it would take Jack to reach him… well… anything could happen. 

As they reached the vehicle he had been roughly bundled into the boot and a second later his arms were pulled behind his back and locked with what he thought was handcuffs. It reminded him painfully of the altercation in the morgue, when the Torchwood soldiers had restrained him. 

That made him wonder. Did they find the handcuffs in the SUV, or were they already carrying them? One meant it must have been a lucky find, he was certain he would have noticed someone rummaging around the back of the SUV, and Jack was bound to have something like that, he needed them for the weevils they caught if nothing else. The other theory meant they had come prepared. 

Inhaling deeply Ianto was certain the bag was theirs. It smelt rotten, a rough material, like Hessian. He wasn’t quite sure of the scent, several of them seemed to have combined on the cloth, but there was an underlying metallic tang. That one made him shiver. He was quite certain it was blood. 

Then he wondered why had they handcuffed him anyway? Unless of course his act wasn’t as convincing as he thought, or they were travelling far enough that they didn’t want to risk him coming to. Either way, for the moment he was helpless, throwing a hissy fit now would serve no purpose other than to put them on alert. 

He winced as they hit another bump. His shoulders jarred painfully, the handcuffs were certainly not helping there. He tried to wedge himself to minimise the movement but still keep himself relaxed at the same time. They were driving the thing fast, probably trying to get to the location they were aiming for. Cross-country without a doubt for the most part, Ianto realised. He just hoped Jack was able to follow him. Ianto got the feeling that was the only way he was getting out of this. 

Again he was thrown around as the SUV came to a sudden grinding halt. The brakes protested a little and something gave an ominous clunk underneath the vehicle. Ianto didn’t like the sound of that. But still the state of the SUV was the least of his worries. As they stopped he shifted slightly, relaxing his body to try and look unconscious still. 

The doors of the SUV opened and then slammed, rocking the vehicle. Then the back door opened. Ianto was grabbed by the back of his jacket and pulled out with one hard, swift tug. Staying limp he landed in a heap on the floor. By gritting his teeth he stopped himself from making any sound. The handy thing about the bag over his head was he didn’t need to worry about hiding how much he was concentrating on keeping his body limp, and allegedly unconscious. 

For a moment he stayed on the floor, keeping still and just waiting. He now had no idea where he was, or what had taken him. All he had seen was a vague impression of a person in ragged, dirty clothes and he was quite sure something had been covering its face. It could be an alien he supposed, a human shaped alien. There had been a few of them that he knew of so it wasn’t much of a conclusion. There was a loud slam as the door of the SUV slammed shut over his head and he couldn’t help but flinch as the vehicle roared away from him. He had been lying inches away from the back wheels, if the thing had rolled slightly it wouldn’t have been pretty. That gave him a good idea of how much they were going to worry about him. 

He felt someone grab him by the upper arm, his left and they pulled hard. 

“Come on lad!” a voice growled at him. They were aliens that spoke English, with a trace of an accent. That was kind of making him lean towards a he had been kidnapped by humans conclusion. And he also realised that his unconscious act wasn’t completely working, and at the rough pulling his shoulder was starting to throb in a way that told him he either got up or had his arm dislocated. Common sense made him work the first one. 

He showed willing but still spent a bit of time trying to find his feet, trying to indicate that he was still a little disoriented. The show wasn’t really that hard. His head ached a little and the journey had been less than comfortable. In a few seconds he was on his feet, wavering a little and feeling a bit sick. 

The feeling increased as he was pulled roughly. He almost fell over his own feet, but the hard grip kept him upright, and there was a light chuckle as he stumbled. Another hand grabbed him tightly on the back of his neck forcing his head down. The grip did nothing to improve the sickness. He was dragged along, stumbling on some loose stones. The grip increased to keep him upright and moving as he was marched along, 

As the touch of the wind abruptly stopped and the air changed he realised he had been taken from outside to somewhere indoors. He was pulled through and his foot caught and kicked a chair, as least he thought it was a chair, the sound of the wood scraping across the floor. A second later as he stumbled again he was pushed forward, the hands released him and he sprawled face down on the floor. 

He gave a gasp as the air shot out from his lungs and winded he struggled for breath for a moment. It wasn’t helped by the scent from the bag catching at the back of his throat, suddenly and painfully. As he hitched for breath he realised the smell had intensified feeling almost solid within the confines of the bag. 

For a moment the only sound he could really hear was his own frantic breaths but as he concentrated he could hear a low murmur behind him. With sheer will power and effort he forced his breathing to steady down, which helped control the hammering of his heart. 

“What about the boy?” a female voice asked. 

“Still looking, he can’t have gone far.” 

“And the others, with him?” she asked. 

“They should follow along. They must be police or something; they had guns in the back of that machine.” 

Ianto listened carefully. Not daring to move for a minute. 

“We’ll have to be careful.” 

“I’ll call Huw, he can take care of them. They won’t be far behind, since we have this one.” Ianto felt his backside rather rudely prodded by a foot. 

“What about him,” the woman asked. “Is he injured?” 

“Bang on the head.” 

Ianto tensed as he was pulled again, rolled over and then sat up against something. The stench was stronger there. Ianto gave several frantic breaths and then winced as the bag was pulled off his head. 

The lights blinded him for a moment, after so long in the dark, and then he looked up at the man smiling down at him. He was dressed roughly; two days of growth on his face and greasy hair, darkened by sweat. The man stood up and looked down at him with a grin. Ianto winced as a hand grabbed his hair and wrenched his head sideways. 

He stopped fighting the grip as he stared in shock. He hardly registered the woman moving nearer, checking the light bruise and lump on his head. Instead he stared with wide eyes at the carcasses hanging up. He knew enough to know they were no animal. They looked human shaped. 

“He seems in a good state,” she commented. Ianto jumped as he realised how close she was and he struggled away but that only took him closer to the hanging bodies. 

“Oh God…” he stammered. “Are they…? They look like…?” 

All he got in return was a delighted grin from the man and the woman gently starting stroking his head, making soothing noises. Ianto sat in the middle, the scent still clawing at the back of his throat, while his body demanded air and he gasped as the cloying stench crawled around him. 

In the end his body couldn’t take it. He gave a strangled cough and the bile surged up his throat. With an instinct that could probably have been born from experience the woman moved back, knowing what was happening before into Ianto did. 

He turned his head to the side retching heavily and moments later as black dots started to dance in front of his eyes he knew the unconsciousness he had been feigning was, gladly, about to become a reality.


	2. Chapter 2

“God, who’d want to live out here?” Owen snapped as the four of them stared down at the village. 

No one bothered to answer him. They all just stared at the bleak landscape and the little village tucked away in the valley. Privately Jack rather agreed with him, it seemed highly depressing to be stuck out somewhere like this, as peaceful as it probably was. Jack didn’t think he would ever be able to handle peaceful now.

Nothing about him felt peaceful at the moment. Although it was hard to tell on the outside, his stomach was churning with worry. They had taken Ianto. It was driving him to distraction. God knows what was happening to him. Next time, Jack decided, he was keeping Ianto with him whatever horrors the young man had to look at. 

“Where’s the SUV now?” Jack asked Suzie who was holding the tracking device. 

“A little past the village, three quarters of a mile or so.” 

“You said it stopped for a time.” 

“Only a couple of minutes. It paused, a little way beyond the village and then carried on for another half mile,” Suzie said, checking the data over as she spoke. 

“Enough time to remove someone from the vehicle?” Jack asked. 

Suzie shrugged. “Possibly, maybe, it depends where the SUV is parked. There is nothing on the map other than the village; anything beyond it is anyone’s guess.” 

Toshiko was holding the map. She held it out for Suzie to compare with her GPS data. 

“We don’t have the equipment to pull up a satellite picture of the area,” Toshiko added. “If I had taken the battery and mobile radar out of the SUV we could have done that.” 

“Doesn’t matter. We couldn’t have anticipated this.” Jack moved ahead of them walking down the hill. Suzie and Tosh moved behind him, Owen took the rear. 

“The body was a warning, or a decoy,” Suzie said. 

“I doubt a warning, no point kidnapping someone after you’ve tried to warn someone away.” 

“You might have to face the fact that they killed him.” 

Jack stopped and spun round and glared at Owen. Toshiko lurched back. Suzie, without looking up, sidestepped Jack and carried on walking. 

“They haven’t killed him, at least they didn’t at the campsite and it serves no purpose to do it until they have caught all of us.” Suzie, as she spoke, sounded so practical her voice was almost bored. Jack spun round. Toshiko slunk past him and Jack ended up at the rear of the group with Owen. 

“How do you know they didn’t kill him?” 

“Because Owen, no one is going to waste time killing someone and then bother to pick the body up and stuff it in the car. That would be a waste of time if you are trying to set up a trap. The only reason you would waste the time was if your victim was alive.” 

“You sound like you know from experience,” Owen sneered. Suzie stopped walking, she turned around and glared at Owen. Her dark hair flew around her face as it was picked up by the wind. 

“No, Owen, it is logic. We are walking into a trap and the only advantage we have is that we know it’s a trap. The simple point is, Ianto gives them a bargaining chip. Their plan, probably, was to lure us out by stealing the SUV, the fact that we left Ianto behind when we got all distracted by that corpse, probably, was a bonus, and not part of their plan.” 

“You think so?” Jack asked as Suzie turned and carried on walking. She looked very different in jeans and sheepskin lined boots, Jack couldn’t help but note. 

“Seems logical. If they were trying to scare us off, they’d have left the body.”

Jack winced at that. As they carried on walking they were all silent, thinking about what they were walking into. As Suzie had pointed out to all of them, it was a trap. With Ianto as bait. The SUV would have been good enough but a live person. Jack caught on that thought; live. Ianto had to be alive. It wasn’t worth killing him just yet. 

Jack hoped. They had no idea what they were facing. They reached the bottom of the hill and carefully walked towards the village. Their first port of call. It was small, nothing more than a small pub and four houses in a row. But even so, even with such an obviously small population there was no sign of anyone. The place looked, and felt, like a ghost town. Jack looked around, his jaw set, inhaling deeply. There was no sense of ions in the air, no metallic feel. Just the fresh air and his worry. Something was wrong, but nothing was trying to put itself right. 

In a way part of him couldn’t worry. Ianto felt, and was, deeply integral to the whole situation with Torchwood 1. There was no sense that he would suddenly be gone, that his simple fate was to die in some backwater village in the Brecon Beacons. Unless the universe was still fluctuating in such a way that a bad accident could happen. No, that wasn’t going to happen, Jack told himself. 

He took a deep breath and glanced at the others. Behind them the water ran from a spring, pouring out, the sound soothing his mind somewhat. 

“Tosh, Owen, follow the signal, find the SUV. Keep an eye out. Suzie…” 

Suzie raised her eyebrows as Jack stepped towards the pub. 

“Let’s see if there’s any room at the inn.” 

They went their separate ways. Toshiko took the tracker off Suzie and she held that and the map as her and Owen set off around the cottages, keeping their eye on the signal. Suzie stepped lightly after Jack as they made their way to the door of the pub. 

“Do you really think a village this size needs a pub?” Suzie asked. 

Jack thought about it. “Passing trade I suppose, stop for a quick drink at the quaint pub and all that.” 

“They ought to maintain it better. Yokels are not quaint.” 

Jack made no comment, he pushed open the door. It gave without any problem. He swung the door open and stepped inside. Suzie moved behind him, close to his heels. Her gun was out, but she was holding it lowered to the ground. Ready, but not expecting trouble at this point. 

They moved through the room. Both of them assessing it. Jack saw the furniture, neat and tidy but with a layer of dust over the chairs and tables, light but enough to show that the place had not been used for a day or so. 

Suzie looked at the bar, at the optics, full to various levels. And looking behind the bar; the refrigerators were stocked, and the glasses were all set up ready. She came to the same conclusion as Jack though. For the last few days, no one had been here. 

But they had been here before. Why was it suddenly so different?

“Let’s check upstairs,” Jack said. 

* * * * *

“Ellie Johnson?” Jack asked. Suzie sat back and pulled off her gloves. 

“To an extent it matches her physical description and the body looks recent enough. I really need Owen to do this,” she glanced up at Jack and shrugged. 

“Well, let’s…” 

Both of them tensed as they heard a bang. A second later there was the sound of gravel crunching as someone ran. Jack snarled, as both of them moved to follow the sound he paused to glance out of a window on the landing. It was broken. Why hadn’t someone thought to repair it? Jack wondered. The upstairs was far more neglected than the bar downstairs. 

From the window he couldn’t see anything. Suzie took the vantage point and ran down ahead of him. She had pulled her gun and stepped swiftly down moving to the pub’s main door. As she reached it she pulled it open and paused, waiting for it to swing open and back. When it almost came to she shouldered it back open again and stepped out, gun aimed and ready. 

She moved swiftly, stepping out into the little area that seemed to make up the village front. Jack moved with her, covering her movements, making sure they could sweep the area swiftly. 

They both looked around. 

“Let’s check the houses,” Jack said. He didn’t hold out much hope of Ianto being in any of them but it might give them some answers. He inclined his head and moved swiftly. Suzie came behind him, bringing up the rear her eyes still scanning for signs of movement. 

They moved swiftly, scanning through one house, finding another corpse before quickly moving onto the next. With every step Jack dreaded finding Ianto somewhere. Although he could still hope that as bait for the trap he was still alive. Instinct told him that Ianto wasn’t around in the village, but something told him there was an answer lying around here somewhere. 

Suzie tugged the door of the next house and met resistance. She paused and glanced at Jack. Jack raised his eyebrows. 

“Locked?” 

Suzie tugged again. “Chain on the inside.” Jack nodded at her. Suzie braced herself and flung open the door, she moved back with it, out of the line of the door but so she was able to see round it, pulling it as far back as the hinges allowed. A second later she swore, ducked back, kicking the door to increase the momentum to shut it. Jack flinched, turned his shoulder as a loud bang echoed from the house and splinters flew from the door. Jack felt one brush against his sleeve. Looking down he saw a four inch sliver of wood caught in the material of his coat. 

The door slammed shut and he glanced up at Suzie. 

“Shotgun from what I can tell,” she said and then raised her eyebrows. Jack gave a rueful grimace and got the hint, pushing himself off the wall where he was pressed against it by the door. The hint was clear enough, it was his turn. Suzie reached for the door handle again. 

She yanked the door open and stepped back. Jack spun on his left foot to move into the doorway gun at the ready. He stepped through, gun raised pointed at the figure on the stairs. They were still holding the shotgun, but it was shaking, the boy’s entire body was shaking violently. Jack had a split second to register everything. The boy looked shocked that he had actually fired the thing. 

“Put the gun down now!” Jack roared at him. Suzie backed him up by following, her own gun ready. The command was obeyed almost immediately. The shotgun clattered down onto the stairs and Jack measured the kid sat there, looking tearful and frightened. 

“I’m sorry, I thought they’d come back for me!” 

Jack watched the kid slump down on the stairs. Very slowly Jack lowered his gun. Instinct told him there was no threat. He’d only fired because he was frightened. Thank God Suzie had good reflexes. Jack didn’t like to think what could have happened in the shot had hit her, even if it was only a few pellets. 

Slowly Jack moved a little further up the hallway of the house. The kid backed up, sliding up the stairs away from him. Jack glanced at Suzie, who after a moment lowered her gun. 

“It’s all right,” Jack said in his best assuring voice. He had used it a lot lately with Ianto’s emotional state going up and down a little, so it worked to quite good effect on the boy. He slid back down the stairs, looking wary but reassured. Jack moved forward.

“What happened here?” he asked. 

“It’s not human!” the boy said frantically looking up at Jack. “I’ve got to get home, my parents are expecting me for…” 

“We’ll get you home okay.” Jack got far enough forward to get a hand on the boy’s shoulder, acting as part reassurance and part restraint. Jack felt him hunch but didn’t worry about it, instead he looked to Suzie. 

“We should check the other houses.” 

“No-one's here! They’re all dead!” 

Jack turned back to the boy. “What’s your name?” 

“Kieran,” he answered in a low tone. His eyes moved from Jack to Suzie as if he couldn’t quite believe they were there. 

“Kieran did you see what did this? How did you get here?” Suzie asked sharply. Kieran looked too stunned to answer; he just blinked, looking a little blank.

“I was travelling home,” he eventually said. “And…” 

“How?” 

“Hitch-hiking,” Kieran said, looking a little embarrassed as he did. Jack caught Suzie’s 'serves you right' look and gave her a mild scowl. 

“Should we go after Tosh and Owen?” Suzie asked. Jack shook his head. 

“We need to know what we’re dealing with first,” Jack said. He was tempted to go flying off to find the others, one other in particular. For the last two hours he was kicking himself, he should have just sent Ianto to London. He’d be safe there, bizarrely. Rather than stuck out here, alone with whatever had taken him. 

Still, Jack had to be logical about the situation. He couldn’t just go tearing off, if nothing else, Owen and Tosh had their only tracker. 

“They should hopefully be back soon, with the SUV.” 

“And perhaps Ianto,” Suzie said, catching the nail squarely on the head. Jack felt his jaw tense as he gritted his teeth, and by the look on her face Suzie saw it. 

“Or they could be dead!” Kieran shouted. “We’ve got to barricade the door.” He tried to get up but Jack’s grip was firm enough that he struggled for a moment and then stopped fighting, looking from Jack to Suzie like he was watching a tennis match. 

“No, let’s make base at the pub,” Jack said. 

Suzie gave a curt nod, getting an entire list of instructions from that one sentence. Jack would get as much information from Kieran as he could, while Suzie checked the defences, should they need them. 

Then they could plan their next move. 

XxxxxxxxxxX

Toshiko walked ahead of Owen, her gaze fixed on the tracker. Her eyes flickered up on occasion to check her pathway but other than that she stayed focussed on the signal. It took them to a run down farm house; most of the windows were boarded up. It sat on the hill moving up from the village in the valley. 

“What a God forsaken place?” Owen said. “Can’t see the SUV.” 

“It’s about half a mile past here,” Toshiko said. She looked up and shuddered. “Do you think anyone lives there?” 

“Let’s check it out.” 

“It’s where the SUV stopped, this area. If it paused and they…” 

“That would mean Ianto’s here, possibly,” Owen said flatly. He gazed at the house as if he expected it to give him an answer. But there was nothing, just a farmhouse, a little walled garden at the front, a pile of tyres stacked near the wall, a stone outhouse to the side. The downstairs windows boarded. The garden wall didn’t even look finished. A pile of stones lay to the side, looking like someone had stopped halfway through the job. 

“I don’t think anyone lives there, it’s…” Toshiko stopped talking as they moved up to the door. Owen reached out and rattled the door. It was locked and there was no give to it. 

“Try round the back.” 

The back, Tosh found, was no better than the front. Dead birds were strung up, presumably recently killed, fresh meat. That thought made her shudder and as Owen strolled around from the other side she almost raised her gun. She controlled herself at the last moment, aware, as soon as Owen came around the corner that it was him. His walk, the set of his shoulders, she could tell it was him a hundred metres away, never mind twenty. Owen looked up at the strung up birds. 

“Nice. Can’t they go to Sainsbury’s like the rest of us?” 

“Owen,” Toshiko warned. 

“Where’s the SUV?” Owen asked, changing the subject. Toshiko consulted the scanner. 

“Half a mile that way,” she pointed up the hill and then looked up towards it, feeling a shudder of unease pass through her. Then she spun and looked behind her, back down the alleyway between the cottage and the outhouse.

“Tosh?” Owen moved across the back of the house towards her. She raised her gun and moved forward slightly. 

“I saw something, a shadow or…” 

Toshiko never got further than that. She heard Owen yelp and as she turned she felt his weight drive against her. The momentum took them both down onto the ground. Owen landed as a dead weight on top of her. That froze her for a moment as she tried to see if he was breathing. At the same time a shadow passed over her. 

Instinctively she looked up to follow the movement but she was dazzled by the sudden lights, and a pain seemed to flourish across her head, blossoming out from a point on her temple. Then something descended again, her eyes rolled. The last thing she looked at was the dark shape above her, and then the darkness spread out to nothing. 

* * * * * 

She woke to feel hands on her. As she tried to roll away from them in irritation, unsure of where she was, they pulled her back almost pinning her. Toshiko gasped and lurched up. Her shoulders were caught and she nearly had her head slammed for the third time, this time almost connecting with Owen’s forehead as he tried to calm her down. 

“Owen!” 

“Sorry, you’ve got a bad lump on your head; I was just checking you were okay.” 

He continued to hold her shoulders steady; letting her gather herself before he dared to let her go. Then he scrabbled for his torch. Toshiko flinched as the light passed before her eyes. 

“Owen!” 

“Just look up.” 

With an over dramatic sigh Toshiko did as he asked. He looked at her intently, studying her eyes for any sign of a concussion. He felt the lump on her forehead. Toshiko winced but allowed him to continue with the hurried examination. They were hardly in ideal conditions. The room felt dark and musty. Faint patches of sunlight came from somewhere. Toshiko tried glancing around the room. 

“What happened?” 

“Someone jumped us. God knows where they came from but I got a whack on the head, then I must have started hallucinating, I fell on something soft.”

“That was me,” Toshiko said. Owen pulled back almost glaring at her. 

“Oh,” he said. “You seem fine, do you feel sick?” 

Toshiko shook her head. “I’m a little hungry but okay.” 

“You should have had a burger when you had the chance.” 

“Not THAT hungry,” she said, slowly moving. She sat up and looked around. There was no doubt they were in some cellar. Presumably the cellar of the house they had been looking around. 

Owen stood up, kicked a crate two or so metres across the room. Toshiko was about to shout at him, venting his frustration in a pointless way, but then he climbed up on the crate and started to fiddle with the bulb hanging from a flex, trying to get it to work.

“Is there a light switch?” Toshiko asked. 

“No.” 

“Probably controlled from outside.” She looked for the door. 

“Reinforced steel door, bolts probably lying top, middle and bottom.” 

“No way out there then?” Toshiko said. She took the torch and swung the beam around. “Anything else.” 

“That was as far as I got before you regained consciousness. You were more important.” 

Toshiko snorted rudely, not inclined to believe that. Owen paused and looked down at her. He knew the light wasn’t going to work, he knew they weren’t getting out of here without help. Owen was a realist. He knew when things were hopeless. He could try and think that if Ianto was close he might do something but Owen wrote him off. Jack’s pretty boy was next to useless, unless it came to coffee.

“Owen?” 

Tosh had moved to the far side of the room. To the chute that was covered with fresh blood.

“Seen it,” Owen said. 

Toshiko shrugged and turned, moving across the room. The torch swept from left to right. She assessed the area and as she walked she paused, crouching down. 

“Owen?” 

“What!” Owen snapped, realising that the light worked from the outside switch but also at the same time, he worked out that the bulb had gone years ago. 

“Look at this, just… how many people have been down here.” 

“What!” he jumped off the crate and followed her, standing behind her as she held up the shoe. Owen took it. 

“It’s a shoe, it could be from the bastard that put us down here.” 

“And all that as well, how many feet do they have?” 

Owen gasped as she raised the torchlight. “Fucking hell!” 

Even as the torchlight moved Owen stayed where he was, staring at the evidence of the people that had been trapped before them. No, not trapped. This was new. He looked around at the dust, seeing it on the floor. 

“We’re new here,” he said. “Look at the dust, this hasn’t been touched for years.” 

“Owen…?” Toshiko had moved around the wall and now she turned the torchlight to look at the fridge. 

“Tosh, maybe you shouldn’t…” 

As he said that he realised she was beyond listening and beyond caring about what Owen thought. She got up and strode towards the fridge, yanking the door open. Owen moved forward, looking like he wanted to stop her but didn’t dare. Toshiko stared at the contents of the fridge and gaped in horror. 

“Oh my God, we’re food!” 

She shut the fridge with a desperate slam. 

* * * * * 

Ianto sat very still. His back throbbed and the pain was making him feel sick. He bit down hard on the material in his mouth and wondered where Tosh and Owen had gone. 

He had stayed quiet since his arrival at the slaughterhouse. The sickness had made him weak anyway but the woman had been solicitous in looking after him. Once his stomach had stopped heaving she had poured a glass of cold water and brought it to him, lifting his chin and helping him drink it. 

Defiance was not much of an issue at that point. Ianto needed all the help he could get. If she could at least keep him hydrated then it helped his body, and his mind stay focussed. He still had to get out. From the way she treated him Ianto realised he would get no help from her, but he could still use her. 

She was a source of information and if he stayed compliant enough, she may drop her guard. Enough for him to escape and find the others at least. 

“What’s going on?” he’d asked after the second glass of water. Again she had smoothed his hair down. It took an amazing amount of effort to not flinch away, but he didn’t want to alert her to anything. Instead he had stayed still and let her do what she wanted, he blinked frantically as she did so. That was a movement he could risk. 

She hadn’t answered other than to laugh, and then she had moved away. Ianto had looked around instead. Now he was here, able to view the room, he knew he wasn’t going to be moved again. This was the final destination, for all of them. Ianto hoped the rest of them had better luck. It was a slaughterhouse. Bodies hung on meat hooks, some still dripping with blood. These had to be the people that had disappeared. 

So this was where they came, but who was doing it. The woman just looked like a normal person. Ianto shook his head and took a breath. They had all thought it was alien in origin. Maybe not, Ianto thought as he looked at her making a pot of tea, pottering around the little kitchen and pulling some meat out of the fridge to start cooking. Ianto swallowed heavily, he hoped that wasn’t some part of a missing person but it was too much to hope for. Wherever he looked he couldn’t hide the evidence. He thought back to the two people running the burger stand, a strange stand in the middle of nowhere, just a small distance away from the village. 

If that was the case, he had thrown it up, which he could give some thanks for. He glanced to the side and looked at the pool of vomit that still lay near him. He could see traces of what he had eaten and his stomach recoiled again. 

Forgetting that he looked up as the woman disappeared. From the sound of the creaking boards she went upstairs and then came down again. As she entered the room again Ianto saw her unrolling a bandage. It didn’t look particularly clean and he cowered slightly as she came close. She crouched down and as Ianto looked up she took him by surprised forcing the material into his mouth gagging him swiftly, efficiently. Ianto gave a muffled protest as she jerked his head forward and the bandage was tied tightly. Then he jerked as he heard the rattling of a door. 

“Try round the back.” 

Ianto yelped, the sound muffled as he heard Owen’s voice. He flinched and tried to struggle. She was having none of it. Her hand reached up to the table top over him and she grabbed at something. It turned out to be a knife. The blade was sharp, shining in the lights, a clean implement, and unlike the rest of the room it was cared for. Ianto struggled back again. Vaguely he heard the sound of wood being kicked, and then there was a yelp. 

That sound could have been his as he felt the knife slice his arm, just where it met his shoulder. She cut through his shirt and tee-shirt to the skin below. She made one smooth neat line and then brought the knife to his neck. Ianto whimpered again and her free hand wound into his hair. 

“Quiet now.” 

She kissed him lightly on the temple, fussing over him as if she was trying to calm a terrified pet. Ianto heard other sounds but they were muffled. It could have been his breathing, his heart pounding in his ears, fearful that his own raised pulse would push against the knife and slice itself open, letting him bleed out. Or it could have been the sound of his colleagues, his friends being taken as well. 

Ianto looked up staring around frantically. In the moment of panic he hadn’t realised whatever had happened had been done. She had left him; her and the knife had gone. There were more sounds outside, a quick bark of laughter and talk, so muffled he couldn’t make out the words. 

Slowly he started to curl up, bringing his legs up, huddling back against the table. Tears sprouted in his eyes and he bit down on the material in his mouth. One thought ran through his head, and it stayed there. 

Where was Jack, was he coming, would he get here in time?


	3. Chapter 3

Two huge doses of brandy later Kieran sat on the bench in the pub and wavered in exhaustion. Jack looked at him carefully from the seat he had taken opposite. Kieran looked at him with wide eyes but had drunk when he was told. 

Behind them came the sounds of Suzie searching the pub, for weaknesses, for evidence, for anything she could see. Jack knew she was good at that. Suzie was clinical, in a way that Jack could never hope to achieve. It was why he had recruited her. She was so dangerously clever and frightening that he didn’t want her anywhere but close to him. At least, for now, she couldn’t see that. She just did what she thought was her job. Suzie had no idea of what she was capable of. 

“Kieran? When did you come here?” 

The boy for a moment look bemused but then pulled himself together. 

“Thursday… I think I took a lorry, a farmer’s lorry. He said he’d take me as far as his village and said the landlord of the pub would put me up for the night. I didn’t realise he was Sweeny Fucking Todd!” Kieran lurched up in panic, his eyes darting around as if he expected something, or someone, to leap out from the pub furnishings. 

“Calm down!” Jack said. He rose up in his seat, one hand held out palm outward to try and reassure the boy. 

Kieran watched him warily. 

“Okay, did you see them; did you see what they looked like?” Jack asked carefully. 

“NO! They just ran at me!”

“But did they look like people, walking on two legs, using weapons, or anything…” Jack tailed off, suddenly realising just how insane he sounded to someone who had been through more than enough all ready. 

“What do you mean?” 

Jack flinched, “you said they weren’t human. I just wanted to know what you thought they were.” 

Kieran looked baffled. Tired and baffled. His eyes were starting to lose focus, he was beyond tired, actually bordering on exhausted. 

“Hey, hey! Kieran look at me,” Jack coaxed him gently. He reached out to take his hand. At that Kieran looked up, jerking violently at the movement. 

“It’s all right, we’ll protect you. I’ll protect you.” Those words were heartfelt. Jack felt them running through his entire being. He didn’t mean them for Kieran. He was just an incidental sounding board. Jack was aiming for another source. One that couldn’t hear him. 

“What did you see, Kieran?” 

“They… it was night when I reached the village. I was hoping for…. There was no one here. I knew they had been hurt, or… there was blood! I couldn’t get home, I couldn’t run… I don’t know where to go!” 

“Kieran, listen to me, just stay calm. I just want to know what you saw, so we can stop them. Do you understand me?” 

Jack watched as the boy nodded dumbly. It was hard for him to comprehend and in some ways even harder for Jack to try and break through into what was real. Or at least what he could assume was real. 

“They just appeared, like savages. I couldn’t see them, their faces… they were just dark.” Kieran spoke, again it was so weary. “I ran, I just ran… I couldn’t get out, it was just safer to hide here.” 

“Where did you find the gun?” 

“In the cottage, it was in the cupboard under the stairs. I didn’t mean to try and shoot you. I thought they’d come back for me.” 

Kieran’s eyes dropped and he blinked heavily. Jack sat back in the chair and taking that as a cue Kieran slouched back on the bench, sagging slightly. Jack let him, instinct told him that Kieran didn’t know any more than what he was saying. He had got as far as the village, got chased and then lost. The unfortunate thing was, he was expecting them to come back for him and his proximity to Jack made that an absolute certainty. Jack slid out of the chair, making Kieran jump and he opened his eyes in shock. Jack managed a gentle smile. 

“Just get some rest.” 

Kieran did exactly that. He slouched down on the bench, his hand reaching out for the shotgun that was propped at the side, taking it almost like a security blanket. It wouldn’t hurt for him to carry it, even if, at least for the moment, it wasn’t loaded, for everyone’s safety. Jack watched him settle down and then went round the bar into the back. To his surprise he found Suzie on the phone in the hallway, chattering away amiably. The phone was in one hand, and the other, which was obscured by her body, seemed to be drumming impatiently on something. 

“Okay, thanks for that anyway. You know what it’s like when you just come in to help out, everything’s so confusing.” Suzie said. Jack listened. The tone of her voice was bright and bubbly, she made herself sound slightly breathless, a very girly type of voice, not Suzie’s usual business like manner. Jack frowned and waited. 

“Thank you!” she said brightly as she rounded off the conversation and hung up. Then she turned to Jack as if she had known he was there all along and she probably had, Jack thought. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Bit of research, after I looked in the cellar and found this.” She lifted what she had been drumming her fingers on. Jack recoiled as he looked at the jar, seeing the liquid slosh around in it, holding what looked suspiciously like a pair of kidneys. 

“Suzie!” Jack glanced at the door to the bar. But Kieran hadn’t followed. 

“Look at it Jack!” She slammed it down on the table by the phone and Jack watched her run a finger through the thick layer of dust on the top of the jar. Jack frowned and gasped. 

“There’s shelves of them Jack, down in the cellar, and they haven’t been put down there in the last seven months, they look like they’ve been there for years!” 

Jack gaped, working the possibilities of that out in his mind. 

“So what was with the phone call?” 

“I looked at the licensing sign over the door, phoned the brewery. The last order they placed was a month ago, the usual landlord, a guy called Martin, went to collect it as usual. Nothing out of the ordinary… except he has several glass jars of human body parts in the cellar as well.” 

“And if he collects the order, then no one from the brewery comes here and goes in the cellar. How does he get away with that?” 

“No, they don’t order that much in, so it’s not that hard to collect, although apparently sometimes he has a young lad helping out, but….” Suzie shrugged as if she didn’t want to take the conversation in the direction she was driving at.

Jack glared at her, Suzie looked back. Jack glanced at the jar. 

“If they’re that old, then whatever’s here has been here for years.” 

“So why have we not found it before? If we had the SUV we could find out. I didn’t see a computer in any of the houses, and even if they did it would probably take to long.” Suzie glanced at her watch. “Its past four now, it’ll be getting dark soon.” 

“Where the hell are those two with the SUV anyway?” Jack asked anxiously. 

“We still don’t quite know the situation yet,” Suzie said. “Maybe they’ve found Ianto as well.” 

Jack tensed at the thought of Ianto, of what had happened to him. 

“Give it an hour Jack, when it starts to get dark we’ll get an answer. Although…” Suzie paused and glanced in the direction of the bar doorway. “Probably best not let Kieran know what’s going on.” 

“No, we don’t want him panicking.” 

“Not quite what I meant Jack.” 

Jack frowned. Suzie sighed. 

“Sorry Jack, but from what I can see there isn’t any evidence of rift or alien activity here. I think we might have to accept the fact that this could be people. We just assumed it was some fall out from the rift, a seven month old story.” Suzie glanced down at the jar and its gory contents. “What’s going on here is way beyond that and from what evidence I can see there are no aliens here.” 

Jack grimaced. “Just monsters,” he said. 

XxxxxxxxxxX

“Tosh, look at this,” Owen had gone to the chute again. He peered up intently.

“What?” 

“Go up and look.” 

Tosh looked at him like he was mad. Owen looked back at her, and nodded his head at the chute. Toshiko tentatively touched the blood that was smeared on it. It looked fresh, sickeningly fresh. 

“Go on, at least we can try and get out.” 

“And do what?” 

“Find Jack for a start. He was in the village, we didn’t move that far away, we need to find him.” 

Tosh couldn’t argue with that. Very gingerly she lifted her leg and rested her foot on the lip of the chute. The sole of her trainer slid against the blood. 

“What do you think they threw down here?” 

“Don’t think about that,” Owen said. He grabbed her other leg, taking her calf firmly. Toshiko jumped slightly but didn’t have much choice as Owen hefted her up slightly. She almost banged her head, ducking under the lip only just in time. 

“Careful,” she snapped at him. 

“Can you get out?” 

Toshiko wriggled her shoulders up through the gap. It was tight, not excessively so. She could just about move, but it wasn’t going to be comfortable. Owen pushed from below her again. 

“Stop doing that!” Toshiko hissed at him. Owen stopped. 

“Sorry. Can you make it?” 

She reached up an arm and felt around. There were grips on the chute, up to a point. However, she could see the top not far away. She pushed and wriggled, Owen supported her as best he could. It was not ideal; he was halfway in practically allowing her to put her feet on his shoulders, and almost kicking him in the head twice.

Owen idly wondered if that was a deliberate revenge for what he had said earlier, but as Toshiko continued to struggle he knew it wasn’t. The thought wouldn’t occur to her. He knew that and he also knew he shouldn’t snap at her, as he did on occasion. 

“Shit!” he snapped as Toshiko lost her grip and he suddenly took her entire weight. He was pushed backwards and he felt in a heap on the floor. With a yelp Toshiko, slid down. Owen rolled sideways and at the same time tried to sit up and catch her without actually letting her land on him. It didn’t work very well and Toshiko landed in a similar heap on the floor next to him. She gave a loud gasp as the wind shot out of her lungs. 

For a few seconds all the pair of them could do was lie on the floor and gasp for breath as they both worked out where they had been bruised and if there was anything more serious. 

“Are you all right?” Owen eventually asked. Slowly Toshiko started to get up, moving onto her hands and knees. She glared down at Owen, who was still lying on his back next to her. 

“Not much of a gentleman are you?” she snapped. 

“I never deluded anyone into thinking that I was,” Owen said in reply. He sat up and glared back. “Can you get out? We need to find Suzie and Jack.” 

“And Ianto,” Toshiko added. Owen snorted with a very humourless laugh. 

“Yeah, your new best friend.” Slowly he got to his feet, staggering a little but righting himself quickly enough. Toshiko sat up, getting onto one knee and glaring up at him. 

“And what is that supposed to mean?” 

“I was watching you today, giggling and flirting. So did Jack.” 

Toshiko stood up so she was more on a level with him. She straightened up, the action hurt a little, she felt a little twinge in her back as she flexed slightly. 

“What is that supposed to mean?” 

“Just be careful, you know what Jack’s like about his toys.” 

Toshiko’s face took on an expression of fury that Owen wasn’t aware that she was fully capable of.

“Is that you or Suzie talking?” she snapped. 

Owen’s remark had hit the target earlier now Toshiko’s did the same. Owen liked his relationship with Suzie, it gave him good sex, a little pillow talk, work talk that couldn’t go any further and Suzie walked away utterly detached. That was the key; Owen had always said to himself, find a woman who could walk away from casual sex. Suzie could do that, Suzie compartmentalised her life better than Jack could even do it. But Owen felt Suzie’s influence now and again, and sometimes he didn’t like it. 

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” Owen said. Toshiko glared at him. Owen knew how stupid he sounded. “Look, can we try and get you out of here, whatever is going on, it’s not good for us and we need the others.” 

“They could be on their way.” 

“We know never to rely on that, come on Tosh, let’s try…” 

Owen stopped at the sound of a dull thud. Toshiko jumped and scrabbled for the meat hook they had found earlier, getting ready to use it as a weapon. She nodded at a space behind him and Owen turned to see the crack of light that came from the peephole of the metal door. 

The bolts came back and the light increased as the door slowly opened. Owen moved to flank Toshiko’s left side and left her right arm free to swing the meat hook. There was nothing much for him to use as a weapon so he just stayed tense as they both shuffled to the door. 

“First chance you get, you run.” 

“First chance either of us get.” 

Owen released a heavy breath. He said nothing but Toshiko saw him nod curtly. Then they concentrated on the door, waiting for what would happen next. 

XxxxxxxxxxX

“With the barricade on the front door we can filter them through the cellar. Once we have one of them down we can get some answers.” 

“And we need to mind the kid,” Jack said glancing at Kieran sleeping peacefully on one of the pub benches with the shotgun in his arms. They had built up a defence of tables and chairs by the door and Jack had nailed the window’s shut; no one could force them. They could break them but that was a risk they had to take. 

“We’re not arming him, Jack, that gun stays unloaded.” 

“Agreed. We have to wait for them to come to us, they’re going to come. They’re coming back for him and they’ll want us.” 

“Jack,” Suzie moved closer. Jack tensed and glared at her. Judging by the expression on her face Suzie was about to say something that Jack wasn’t about to like. Still, that never stopped her from shirking the responsibility. If Suzie needed to say something, Suzie would. For a moment she watched him, registering his reaction. 

“Going by what we’ve found we may have to assume that the others, if they’ve been caught, are dead.” 

“But like you said there is no point in that unless they’ve caught us all.” 

“They have caught us now Jack. We’re in the middle of nowhere, with no vehicle and no way to really make contact with the outside world in time. They have an advantage here. We do have something they want.” She paused and glanced in Kieran’s direction. He was still sprawled on the bench sleeping soundly. 

“They’ll come for him, but I think we have to expect they’ll come with murder in mind.” 

Jack released a breath. “Still, I don’t think they’re…” 

He stopped as there was a sudden rattling sound. Both Suzie and Jack turned to look at the pub’s window. A shadow flitted across it and a second later the lights went out. 

“Here we go,” Suzie said in a low tone. There was a click as her gun loaded and she carefully watched the windows for any signs of a shadow. There was one, it flitted against the other window. 

“Same person or a second.” 

“They started there and moved across, the entrance to the cellar is around that way.” 

“You left it unlocked?” 

In the dim light Jack saw Suzie nod, she moved to the other side of the bar, in position to watch it. Jack jumped at the sound of the shotgun, it gave a dull click. 

“Hey! It’s…” Kieran sat up, fiddling with the gun in panic. Jack moved around the bar, keeping an eye on the front of the pub while Suzie watched the back. 

“Kieran, come here!” 

He reached to try and grab Kieran’s collar but the boy, in panic, moved swifter. He ducked under Jack and ran to the door. Several tightly wedged chairs toppled with a crash. 

“Shit!” Suzie swore. Her gun stayed trained on the cellar door as it started to rattle. Jack caught Kieran and flung him in the direction of the bar, he moved up against him effectively pinning Kieran down. He struggled against him but Jack rested his entire body weight on him. The door continued to rattle. 

As it burst open both of them fired and then Jack flinched as from outside, through the windows, he caught the flash of a blue light. 

XxxxxxxxxxX

Both Owen and Toshiko kept their eyes open as they were guided up from the cellar through the house. As they reached the hallway Owen clocked the front door and gave Toshiko a look. She understood immediately, having seen the same thing. 

They carried on moving as the woman waved the shotgun at them. She looked frightened enough to use it, rambling on about something called ‘The Harvest’. Considering the fact they had found a carcass stripped of flesh and a fridge full of said flesh, that title, Owen thought, didn’t bode particularly well. 

As they moved into a kitchen area of the house, and then to past that, both of them went into a deeper alert, Owen and Toshiko looked around, taking in as much detail as possible. The room was divided, sectioned off by a plastic screen that had been raggedly cut. Owen lifted his side flinching as he realised the dark brown spots were fly droppings. Several flies were actually caught on the plastic, caught in the thickness of another substance. Owen didn’t want to think about it as he pulled at the plastic that had glued itself to his left jacket cuff. 

“Oh my God, are they…. Are they… they look like us,” Toshiko stammered. 

“They don’t just… Ianto!” 

Owen couldn’t see his face but he recognised the clothes. It was what Ianto had been wearing earlier on and although Owen had not exactly examined Ianto’s wardrobe, the jeans, jacket and tee-shirt were clear enough. Over his head was a rough cloth bag that didn’t look particularly clean. 

As always Owen’s mind honed down. He forgot about the corpses hanging up at the back of the room, and the jars on the blood spattered table. All his focus moved onto Ianto, who was lying ominously still. However, as Owen moved closer he saw Ianto tense slightly, sensing his presence, but perhaps not realising who it was. 

Owen rectified that straight away by pulled the bag off Ianto’s head. He gave a little muffled whimper as Owen did so and he flinched, not just with panic but as the light hit his eyes. A second later, as they adjusted Owen saw them focus on him. Ianto’s eyes widened and he glanced around clocking Toshiko still hovering on the threshold of the room. The blond woman with the shotgun a pace behind her. 

She prodded Toshiko again to push her further in, moving her closer to the two men. So she could presumably keep an eye on all three of them. Not that Ianto needed much minding, Owen thought savagely. Owen helped him sit up slightly moving him away from the nearest corpse as he flinched. Then he moved to pull the gag out of his mouth. 

“Don’t touch him!” the woman snapped, sounding less frightened and a little more possessive. Ianto’s blue eyes shot from Owen to her briefly, and then back again. They widened a little, trying to tell Owen something. It didn’t much tell him anything but rather confirmed a very horrific suspicion that was creeping up on him. 

“I just want to check he’s all right,” Owen said hearing the tension in his voice. He didn’t want to bring the tension in the room much higher since the woman was still waving the shotgun in their direction. 

“He’s fine, I checked him. I’m a nurse. He’s not been hurt.” 

Owen glared at her and snapped back, unable to really help himself. “And I’m a doctor, I’m his doctor.” 

That wasn’t strictly true. He had taken a blood sample as was required for Torchwood personnel and he had once had a very short discussion with Ianto, directly after Lisa’s death, as to whether he wanted any anti-depressants or sleeping pills. Ianto had very succinctly ended the discussion with a firm no. But it still counted, Owen decided.

Whether it was true or not his comments made the woman pause long enough for him to successfully remove the material from Ianto’s mouth. Owen sat him up even further and wasn’t surprised when Ianto huddled closer to him, trying to keep his eyes off the horrors in the room. It was not a good place for Ianto to be, Lisa’s death was still a relatively raw wound. 

“Are you all right?” Owen looked at the bruised lump on his head where he had been struck. Ianto flinched as he touched it but that was the only reaction he gave. 

“Owen?” Ianto’s voice was low and shaky. He looked pole-axed with fear. Owen wasn’t surprised by the next thing that Ianto asked. 

“Where’s Jack?” 

“In the village, with Suzie. One of us needs to get down there to warn him, if we can.” Owen let his eyes trail to Toshiko. She hadn’t caught the words but the look was enough. Owen and Ianto wanted her out, to get to Jack and Suzie. 

Owen stopped as the woman moved closer. He glanced at Ianto who nodded slowly. Getting the hint Ianto tried to sit up, with more of his own accord rather than leaning on Owen. 

“Do you feel sick or anything? Any headaches? Anything else?” 

Ianto shook his head. “I’ve been sick once but I’m just a bit dehydrated I think… I just… keep thinking about the burgers we had earlier.”

Owen grimaced, and went a little green. “Thanks, Ianto.” 

Ianto managed a feeble smile. The woman stepped a little closer, obviously trying to hear the conversation that was going on. Toshiko glared at her. 

“Who were these people?” she demanded, nodding her head in the direction of the hanging corpses. 

“Meat. Just meat.” 

All three of them jumped at the sound of the new voice. Ianto flinched again, recognising the man as the one he had seen earlier. Toshiko backed up a little further, although there was no need, the blonde haired woman retreated slightly, to the plastic curtain and let the man move ahead of her. He surveyed the three of them. 

“In the end, we’re all just meat.” 

Toshiko glanced down at Owen with a slight frown. Owen looked back, giving almost nothing away, but Toshiko could read his eyes well enough. They had to do something. 

“You have to get away,” Ianto hissed urgently. He didn’t think he was in much of a fit state to go anywhere but if the others got away then they could get Jack. 

“Is that what you’re going to do to us?” Toshiko demanded, acting as a distraction and a focus. “Put us on meat hooks?” 

The man glanced at the woman. She smiled and then started to laugh. Owen watched her, and the man, wondering if they were both insane. Toshiko stared at them with wide eyes. Owen needed her out, but he would have to trust that she could get away on her own. Ianto couldn’t be left. Between looking after one or the other he had to pick Ianto. Tosh could take care of herself. Ianto couldn’t. Owen couldn’t see him as capable of looking after himself. Not in this kind of situation. 

Quite simply, as unflattering as it was, Owen had a clear view of exactly how he needed to view Ianto in this situation. Totally unable to cope. That was the reason that Jack had left him behind when they had gone to look at the carcass they had found. It was why Jack pretty much kept Ianto in the hub until today, the simple logistics of running a campsite and the four of them made Jack bring Ianto along. 

Owen wouldn’t deny that Ianto was very good at his job. But it was the job he had, Liaison to London and Tea-boy for the rest of the time. It wasn’t a fact Owen had shirked and Ianto hadn’t really resented him for that. Oddly, Owen thought, it had given him a sense of stability, defined his boundaries so well that he couldn’t have fallen apart in the wake of Lisa’s death even if he had tried. 

So, Owen felt more than a little obliged to keep that going. Plus, Jack would probably kneecap him if he left Ianto now. He was the most vulnerable member of the team, so they had a duty to protect him. Although having seen the room they were in Owen was having difficulty working out what he could actually do. 

Now, however, he looked up at Toshiko and the man she was bravely confronting. 

“No, not yet, first meat needs to be… tenderised.” 

Owen gritted his teeth and took a sharp breath as the man picked up a baseball bat. Tosh glanced in his direction. Owen moved to prop Ianto up against the table leg. Ianto didn’t worry about the sickening mess close to him. He was watching what was happening. Owen moved, watching as well. 

Toshiko flinched as the man moved closer brushing the rounded tip of the baseball bat against her cheek, his other hand moved down over her side, to her hip and around to her backside, feeling the flesh. 

“Yeah… good,” the man murmured. Owen felt his jaw tense and he glared at the man. But for the moment he wasn’t interested in Owen. Owen glanced at the woman. She looked very unconcerned that the man was feeling up another woman. Actually she looked positively fascinated. For a moment he had thought they were married but, maybe not, or maybe there was really nothing that sexual about what the man was doing. Owen slowly stood up, lifting his chin as the man let Toshiko go and moved over to him. 

Owen tensed and closed his eyes as the baseball bat tapped lightly against his jaw just by his ear. Then he opened his eyes again and brought his leg up. 

His knee connected squarely with the man’s groin, making him double over with a whoosh of pain as he exhaled. Owen slammed the heel of his hand against the man’s ear, sending him sideways. But he still managed to throw a hard punch into Owen’s ribs. His legs buckled as the air was forced out of his lungs and there was a sickening crack as at least one, maybe two, ribs gave way. 

Toshiko moved. The woman wasn’t quite sure where to aim the attack. Toshiko kicked up with her left leg and sent the shotgun out of her hands; she followed up with a punch that pitched the woman into the table. The force of the movement jerked Ianto sideways but seeing where she was going Ianto kicked out a leg and tripped her up as she tried to right herself. 

“Go! Get to the village, we need Jack!” Owen roared. 

Toshiko took flight. She ran out of the slaughter house, through the kitchen and out of the front door, that was, amazingly still open from the man’s arrival. 

Owen didn’t watch her go. His aim now, was to keep the two people occupied for just a while longer. The man was on his feet again clearly used to the fight and the struggle to subdue his victim. Owen thought about the people strung up behind him, now nothing more than flesh… meat. The man was right about that, they had become that. But Owen wasn’t about to go down without a fight. 

He dodged a swing from the baseball bat and slammed out a punch. It wasn’t brilliant but it kept the guy distracted. 

“Owen, watch out!” Ianto yelled. 

The blonde woman recovered quicker than anticipated and because she didn’t enter the melee straight away she wasn’t noticed. Instead she had gone for the shot gun. But she didn’t bother aiming the barrel, instead she moved up close to Owen and as he turned, hearing Ianto’s warning the butt of the gun slammed hard into the side of his head. Owen’s eyes rolled and he crumpled down into a heap without a sound. He was out for the count, with a thin trickle of blood leaking out from the point of impact. Ianto gasped, horror surging over him. The blow might have killed him; maybe it would have been better if Ianto hadn’t warned him. 

His worry dissipated as he saw the man pick up a long knife, the blade long, slightly curved at the end, and he turned to head out of the room. He was going out after Toshiko. Ianto panicked. She needed all the head start she could get. As he lay there, looking at Owen’s still form Ianto knew he had to do something. And he took the simplest opportunity. 

The man passed him by, Ianto wasn’t considered a threat. They had taken him easily enough and he had stayed subdued as he had remained a hostage in this place. But the arrival of Owen and Tosh meant that Jack wasn’t far behind. And Ianto wanted Jack to get here and make everything stop. Toshiko was going to find him, so Ianto’s current and only thought was to stop the man out to stop her. 

He kicked out as the man passed him, not just tripping him up but trapping his legs so he couldn’t evade him. There was nothing he could do as he pitched to the floor. His hand lashed out catching part of the ragged plastic, ripping it further, tearing a thin strip away. He landed heavily, growling as he did so. Ianto yelped as the woman slammed the gun hard against his shoulder. 

Struggling to get up the man kicked him away and Ianto flinched as he glared down at him. By instinct he shuffled back slightly, trying to huddle under the table. However, the man glanced at his companion. 

“Can you manage these two?” 

She swept the room with her eyes, glaring at Ianto and then Owen, although he wasn’t aware of it. Looking back at her partner she gave a curt nod. Without another word he snatched up the knife again and headed out into the night. Ianto calculated Toshiko had possibly five minutes. He wasn’t quite certain if that would make up for her disadvantage. She was running around in the dark, in an unfamiliar place. Looking around Ianto had no doubt that the man had hunted in the dark before, this was his territory, and he could probably guess which way she would go. 

Ianto blinked, there was nothing he could do now. He sat up slightly and watched the woman move to Owen. She examined the wound on his head and then peeled back his eyelid. 

“Is he all right?” Ianto asked flinching again as she glared at him. He received no reply. But he watched as she competently moved Owen into the recovery position and then took his left arm, pulling it out of position slightly and she handcuffed him to the nearest leg of the heavy oak table. 

His eyes stayed fixed on her as she moved around the room tidying up. For a moment she paid him no heed as she put the shotgun neatly away against the sink in the other part of the room and she put the kettle on. Ianto glanced back at Owen’s still form. He could see the steady rise and fall of his chest. The blow had been hard but as far as Ianto could tell a concussion would be the worst injury. 

Ianto shuffled to try and get a little closer to Owen. He wasn’t quite sure what he was planning to do. His shoulders were aching from being held in position for so long and the handcuffs were now starting to rub against his wrists. Plus he wasn’t trained for this kind of thing. At Torchwood London he never really got involved in major investigations and Jack had kept him firmly out of field missions. This had been his first involvement. 

He stopped moving as he realised she was coming back. Abruptly he started to shuffle back the other way as she headed towards him, eyes firmly fixed on him. He gave a whimper as she picked up the baseball bat, the look on her face told him she was seriously about to use it. Ianto shuffled back, nothing more than fear and instinct driving him as he attempted to get away from her. But he had no where to go. 

As the first blow landed he yelped. She caught him across the side of the leg slamming the wood hard against his thigh muscle. By the fifth blow he was howling and the tenth, screaming. 

Ianto desperately tried to curl himself up to try and protect himself as she rained the blows down on him but nothing seemed to help. She just continued on, working almost methodically as she beat him. As he struggled to get away from her he wondered again where Jack was. Jack, Ianto’s mind announced sternly, would make it all stop.


	4. Chapter 4

Jack watched with a clear level of irritation as the Police Officer examined the body in the cellar. 

“You shot him?” he glared up at Jack. 

The man in question lay at the foot of the cellar steps, he had fallen back dead after Suzie and Jack had pumped six bullets into him, three each. He had taken all of them in his chest, his ribs almost obliterated from the close range shots. 

“Yes, he was trying to attack us,” Jack said. Suzie glared at him, warning him not to say anything, but they couldn’t just say nothing. Although Jack’s instinct was telling him he needed to ignore this guy and go and find the others. Owen, Tosh and Ianto were all out there, God knows where. The only logical point that kept him in position was the fact that the local Policeman knew his way around the countryside a little better than they did. 

“Attack you? He’s the Landlord here,” the PC straightened up and glared at Jack. Still he had to look up to meet Jack’s eyes and no lowly policeman got to Jack that easily anyway. 

“Well then, perhaps you can explain exactly why he’s got jars of human remains down here as well.” Jack used his torch to point out the relevant shelves. The officer turned to glance, but his eyes snapped back to Jack and there was a flicker of nerves on the Policeman’s face. It was brief but Jack saw in nonetheless. So he carried on. 

“That’s not exactly what I expect to find in a pub cellar. Beer is usually a good one, quite a plentiful one, but somehow this place is lacking a little. I wouldn’t really worry about the odd, perhaps sold on the side stuff, but kidneys in jars kind of strange. 

“And then we have to think about the body upstairs,” Jack added. “Slightly stripped of flesh, and the carcass in the house a few doors down, and the terrified boy in the house next door.” 

Suzie listened to Jack, listened to his rant, but as she listened to him she watched the others. Kieran stayed back, looking nervous and frightened his gaze flickering from Jack to the policeman, who hadn’t, Suzie realised, given his name. The policeman however watched Jack very carefully but at Kieran’s mention, as Jack ranted, he sent a sidelong glare in the boy’s direction. 

“You should look at those,” Suzie said. 

“But first we need to locate the others. We need to find out where the villagers are, and the rest of my team.” 

“No,” the PC said slowly. “I am placing you two under arrest for the murder of…” 

He stopped as Suzie reached for her gun. Even Jack had to agree they were beyond a point of reasoning. He and Suzie needed to get out and locate the others. The simple fact that Jack was working by was that the PC may know the way. However as Suzie moved, so did the officer and Jack found the barrel of a handgun pointed into his face. 

“I’m guessing we’re not quite so worried about the murder then?” Jack asked. 

“Oh, I most definitely am.” 

“Still arresting me are you? When did countryside policemen get given guns?” 

“Don’t!” the policeman turned to warn Suzie. Jack heard the click as he primed the gun; it was inches from his face. He was almost going cross-eyed trying to keep it in his vision. Jack couldn’t honestly worry, if he got shot it would probably bloody hurt, he’d die and then come back again; although Ianto was the only one who knew that little fact at the moment. Perhaps it would be better if he didn’t have to explain that to anyone else. 

Suzie paused at the warning and glanced at Jack. Jack gave a rueful shrug and raised his eyebrows. The gun moved a little closer and Jack backed up meeting the bar. It pressed into his back and out of the corner of his eye he saw Kieran move closer. There was a slight frown on his face, a look of complete baffled confusion. Jack couldn’t expect him to help, nor did he want him in any danger. Suzie was watching carefully, she didn’t dare move in case the policeman fired and blew Jack’s face off. 

“Suzie just back off,” Jack said. “Kieran.” His voice hinted that Kieran should do the same. The policeman smirked slightly as he heard that. There was just a slight quirk of his lips and his eyes narrowed. Jack exhaled calmly. He’d never been shot in the face, certainly not at point blank range. As much as he was up for new experiences this was one he would rather forgo. 

Glancing at Suzie he noticed she was less than happy at the command to back off, but she did as she was told. He didn’t want her getting trigger happy with the police. That would have been far too complicated, plus the signs now indicated this man had something to do with what was going on. Jack could have talked him around if he was just simply wanted to arrest him for murder, this was something else entirely. 

“Turn around and put your hands on the bar.” 

Jack’s eyes flashed but he complied and he felt the gun jabbed against the back of his neck. The policeman roughly kicked his right ankle, then his left making him spread his legs, then his free hand moved to frisk him. 

“As much as I don’t mind a man in uniform feeling me up…” 

“Shut up!” The gun was jabbed harder into the scruff of his neck and the hand continued moving eventually moving to his belt and to his gun. 

“… the last one was a lot rougher you know, it’s quite…” 

“Shut up!” This time the words were roared into his ear. He was annoying the man, which was what Jack was aiming for. Angry people could be more violent but far less focussed. 

“… clear that you’re not a…” 

Jack stopped of his own accord this time. His gun was taken away and the next moment it was thrown at Kieran, who caught it. Both Suzie and Jack winced as he fumbled for a grip but both of them focussed their attention on the frightened youth. Jack watched him carefully as he got a handle on the gun and pointed it shakily at Suzie. Who did, in fact, do nothing more than roll her eyes. 

“I knew it.” 

“Suzie,” Jack warned in a low tone. The gun pressed harder into his skin. Jack was getting rather fed up of that. Kieran’s eyes were darting like a frightened animal and his entire body trembled as he tried to hold the gun level. 

“Kieran, what are you doing?” Jack asked, he shifted his weight a little, it was just a subtle shift but he wanted to put himself slightly to the left, so perhaps he could get to the police officer behind him. Jack started to wonder now if he was really an officer. Although , if it was a reality, it probably made for a good cover both to lure people in and put off much in the way of investigations. Jack frantically tried to pull up, from somewhere in his memory, the names of some of the officers who had been involved in the missing persons cases. There had to be one who linked them all, who had been talked to every time, the local constabulary officer for the area. 

Ianto would know, his mind told him peevishly, but you lost him. Jack’s jaw tensed, reminders of Ianto made him more than a little angry. 

“I’m sorry,” Kieran said tearfully. 

“You’re a part of this?” Suzie asked, demanded really and it didn’t sound much like a question. Kieran blinked, his hands shook as he tried to steady the gun. Jack watched him carefully, adding up some of the facts. Although they hadn’t connected them much, and still they didn’t quite add up things became a little clearer. 

“Kieran, you don’t have to be involved in this,” Jack said gently. He still didn’t move. With his head tilted slightly he watched Kieran. His eyes were darting everywhere, trying to look at all of them. He was still terrified, confused and shaking like a leaf. 

It contained Suzie and Jack better than a direct and well controlled threat. Jack knew his gun well enough. It worked to him, he understood every nuance of it. The way things were working he was safe from a direct hit, but he couldn’t say the same about Suzie. The officer behind him he didn’t care about. 

“I don’t have a choice,” he sobbed. “It’s our tradition.” 

“Shut up, Kieran!”

“Huw, I can’t do this,” Kieran looked away but the gun stayed up. He was holding it two handed, the barrel still shaking. Jack looked at Suzie and inclined his head slightly. She frowned at him and he glared at her with blazing blue eyes. He wanted an end to this. 

“What’s your tradition?” Jack asked him gently. Behind him Huw snarled but he didn’t fire. Jack was taking that as a hint, he’d fire if he had to but he seemed to be waiting for something. What could he possibly be waiting for? 

Or more importantly, thought Jack, who could he be waiting for? 

XxxxxxxxxxX

She was lost and she knew it. When she had run from the house, assuming she had taken the front door she had run straight, thinking, remembering, that the house they had gone to was almost directly behind the village. But then something had gone horribly wrong, she had overshot somewhere, or not quite anticipated the angle. 

Or basically, a lot more simply, she was lost. 

The territory was not familiar to her, but it was to the man running behind her. It wasn’t paranoia. Even though it was almost impossible to hear anything else but her own frantic breathing she knew he was there. She stopped and ducked down trying to think her way out of it. Where were the lights? Where was Jack? 

It took her a little time but as she cowered she slowly took control of her breathing and heart. And she spent a moment trying to hear the sounds of the countryside. 

There was nothing. It was utterly silent. 

Toshiko moved slowly, getting up from her hiding space. She lurched forward as she heard a sound. There was a bark, not a dog, just an echoing yelp around the area. But still she ran away from it. Something about it frightened her. Something about this entire place frightened her. 

She needed to find Jack. She had to tell him what was going on. Someone was hurting Ianto, and would hurt Owen. They were going to eat them. How did she explain that? To anyone. Well, she could to Jack. She got the feeling that all she had to do was tell Jack that Ianto was in danger and he’d be mounting a ferocious assault. 

Stopping again she gasped, holding her breath. There were sounds behind her but she couldn’t run much further. She needed to know where she was going. Very slowly she crouched down pressing her back against a tree. There wasn’t anything else she could do except try and get her bearings. Her coat had been taken off her, and the tracker they had been using to follow the SUV. She couldn’t worry about them now; she had to rely on something else. 

Around her the darkness was quiet, almost too quiet. It was the countryside; she expected to hear animals moving, all the nocturnal creatures that came out, so comfortable with the still air, and lack of light. But there was none of that. She wasn’t exactly a country girl, the city was safer. Ironically at that moment in time she could say that with utter certainty. She could handle anything there. 

She actually felt, in all honesty, that she could handle pretty much anything that was thrown at her. Except this. Most of what she dealt with now was impersonal; technology, devices that had no emotions and aliens that just had aims and intentions. This was different; people were involved, real people committing atrocious acts.

It made her wonder, how long ago had she ever thought about that. That people did horrible things as well. All she had seen for so long was aliens, weapons, technology, thinking she needed to protect the Earth from it all. 

She shook her head; she needed to concentrate. Staying low and quiet she listened again. There were still no sounds and it was eerie. It felt like all the other night predators had been scared away. There was only one in his territory and she was the prey. But for now, she couldn’t hear him. 

As she moved, she stayed low, using the wall close by as protection. She cleared the little cluster of trees and looked up. Astronomy was not really her thing, Jack seemed to have a fetish for it – all that standing on roofs and staring up at the sky he did. Now and again he had pointed things out to her, which was what she used now. 

The house had been to the north west of the village. If she could get a vague idea, from the stars, of which way she needed to head, she might be able to increase her chances of getting to Jack. There was no point in running now, unless she could find a direction. She was carefully hidden away in the shadows, so if the man came close she could hide. But she had to move. 

Shuffling a little further forward she cleared the tree canopy to get a good view, looking at the stars in the sky and trying to get her head around what Jack had told her, bringing up the memory of his comments. Now and again he pointed out things that were not even there, planets that existed galaxies away. How he knew they were there, in that place baffled her. It was probably because he looked at the sky so much, often very wistfully. 

As she glanced upward she focussed on the constellations trying to find the North Star. Eventually as she turned she spotted it, looked around again and then moved tentatively forward. She tensed as she heard sounds behind her. Footsteps moving carefully in the dark, and then there was a laugh. A sound of delight, and she sensed a trace of madness, and triumph. 

She moved to her left, away from the sound, trying to look up and orientate herself to the stars. Toshiko shuffled forward and then ducked down, tucking herself in the lee of a large tree, hiding herself between two thick roots. As she turned her head she tensed, from somewhere, looking vaguely like the direction she needed to go she saw a flash of light. And not just any light. 

It was distant. Just caught by her because of her angle and elevation. But it was there, she just caught a glimpse of a blue light. It flashed once, then again and then died. She exhaled steadily. The flash of a police car. There was help somewhere, maybe Jack had called them. 

It seemed to be somewhere in the direction of the village. Toshiko gave and involuntary yelp as a twig snapped close behind her. There was another laugh that sounded close to a snarl. She gasped and lurched up starting to run, keeping as straight a line to her destination as possible. 

The chase was on.

XxxxxxxxxxX

“Kieran,” Jack spoke in a low tone, he ignored the gun jabbing into the back of his neck. He didn’t want to get shot, but he could take the risk. Kieran looked at him, his eyes wide, like a rabbit caught in headlights. The gun wavered in his hands. He was trying to keep it pointed at Suzie. That was the only reason Jack wasn’t moving. He didn’t want Suzie getting shot. He had to clear that impasse. 

He tensed at the sound of movement behind him. Jack was trying to avoid the gun pressing to hard into his neck, so he was starting to lean further and further over the bar. 

“Put your hands behind your back.” 

Jack raised his eyebrows and risked a glance over his shoulder, catching sight of the handcuffs the officer was now holding in his other hands. 

“You know normally I don’t mind that kind of thing but…” 

Halfway through, Jack moved, Suzie ducked and there was an explosion. The mirror over the fireplace exploded, glass flying everywhere. Suzie got up shaking splinters out of her hair, just in time to see Jack punch the policeman hard in the face sending him back against the shelves behind the bar. Glasses smashed. 

Kieran watched in shock. He wavered, not sure where to aim the gun. Suzie moved towards him and he pointed it at her, she stopped. Seeing it and having knocked the policeman out Jack jumped the bar to protect her. Kieran back peddled and then bolted to the left. Jack’s move had left the back exit open and Kieran made for it. He ran, with Jack’s gun still clutched tightly in his hand. Jack groaned, rolled his eyes and jumped back almost landing on Huw slumped on the floor. 

“Jack!” 

Jack spun round at Suzie’s commanding tone. 

“You can’t just go running off after him!” 

“But… he’s got my gun!” 

“Oh for God’s sake!” Suzie snapped. “You can’t go running off in the dark without a tracker or any idea where you are going. I can guess he does since he’s involved in this. And please tell me you haven’t killed him.” 

Jack looked down at Huw, then back up at Suzie. 

“No, just unconscious.” 

“Right, let’s wake him up and get some answers. He knows what is going on. We get him to tell us.” 

“And what if he doesn’t?” 

Suzie’s face hardened. “We’ll be very persuasive.” 

XxxxxxxxxxX

Toshiko knew she was starting to run a little blindly. Trying to keep her eye fixed on the target. A target that wasn’t there anymore. She was still hoping that she was heading the right way. 

She paused again. Looking up, trying to work out if her direction was still right and source the sound of the man behind her. As she paused for the fourth time she listened. She had been forced to hide the third time she stopped, only just managing to hide herself as he moved closer. She had crawled away, feeling the damp mulch against her hands and soaking into the material of her jeans. 

This time as she turned her head to listen and she took several tentative steps forward she tensed and back-peddled. There were sounds ahead of her, someone lashing around in the undergrowth. With a gasp she moved to her left and she yelped as her foot caught on something and she went down heavily. 

As she struggled forward, trying to right herself she veered again, and that was when she realised. There were sounds on both sides. Two people moving around her in the dark. And one had cancelled out the other. She screamed as she was grabbed. She was pulled against a solid body with strong hands and as she was held the scent gave him away. It was the man from the cottage, blood and sweat merged together making her almost choke. Then a hand went to her throat and she gagged. After a moment her knees buckled and she dropped as he released her, allowing her to gasp for air. 

She turned her head as the other sounds came closer. In the dim moonlight she saw another figure, it faltered as it rushed blindly towards them. Toshiko got onto her hands and knees and then was roughly kicked down the man’s boot slamming hard into her ribs, she gasped again. 

The man stepped over her, heading towards the second person. He looked young, nervous and he whimpered as the man moved towards him. Toshiko gasped as she realised the youth had a gun that he was pointing at the man. 

“There you are, boy,” the man growled at him. Toshiko struggled up, if she could help the newcomer then maybe she could find Jack and could warn him of what was happening. Something hard hit the side of her face, she went down again and darkness took her completely. 

XxxxxxxxxxX

Owen groaned as his head throbbed. He stirred slightly rolling over and only stopped as his arm pulled. He tried to draw it back but for some reason he couldn’t and something tugged hard against his wrist. Blearily he opened his eyes, blinking to try and get them into some sort of focus. 

His first thought was, what the hell was I drinking last night? 

Then his eyes sharpened further, and so did his mind. He alerted a little quicker than he liked and his head screamed at him. In the end he stopped tugging on one arm and moved the other bringing it up to press against the sore spot on his head, flinching at the sharp pain. 

“Shit!” Owen swore under his breath. Something told him to keep his voice low. Very slowly he looked up and saw his wrist cuffed to the table leg. Then his head rose further, taking in the room, the sickening smell and a figure huddled against the far wall, tucked up as tightly as they could manage. 

“Ianto?” Owen kept his voice low again. But Ianto heard him. He didn’t move too much but Owen saw the slight tension in his muscles as he flinched and then cowered. Owen looked him up and down, the gag was back in his mouth and his hands were still cuffed behind his back. As he moved Owen saw the flash of pain on his face. His eyes were red and his face dirty and smeared with what looked like dried tears. Owen twisted his hand in the cuff to look at his watch and he cursed silently, the bloody thing was smashed. 

He had no idea how long he had been out, or worse still, what had happened in the interim. Whatever it was, he could guess, was really bad. Ianto looked half scared to death. He had looked bad enough before but now, it looked ten times worse. 

“Ianto?” Owen tried again and then froze at the sound of footsteps, and more than one person at that. He turned onto his side and looked into the kitchen area. Several people were sat around, one reading the paper as casual as you liked. Another just arrived, a blond man, thirty or so Owen guessed. He went and helped himself to a mug of tea without even bothering to look in their direction. 

Something moved into Owen’s line of vision and he stared up at the woman who had hit him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ianto cringe back in terror. She moved forward with a bowl and Owen recoiled until he caught the scent of disinfectant. The woman held a piece of gauze in her hand. 

“You have got to be kidding me!” Owen said loudly. The two people sat at the table looked up. The woman looked less than pleased. 

“I need to check you are all right, I’m a nurse remember.” 

“And I’m a doctor,” Owen snarled. He jerked back but he only had a limited space to go in. He pushed against the table. The heavy oak had no give to it. He was trapped. To lift it he would need a whole lot of time and no spectators. There was no hiding it if he wanted to get free. 

He watched her face harden and she looked at Ianto. Owen heard Ianto whimper and he cowered tightly into the corner. 

“Leave him alone,” Owen snapped. “What have you done?” 

“Well, if you won’t let me treat you, I’ll show you.” 

Owen was looking at her but he was very aware of Ianto whimpering, and at those words he started to cry. Risking a glance in his direction Owen saw him still trying to curl up even further. He knew there was no point in trying to bring Ianto back from the point of terror that he had reached. Instead Owen looked at the woman and deliberately sat back against the table leg and he nodded at her. 

Her face convulsed in anger but she got the point. Because Ianto was frightened, actually terrified of what would happen next Owen would let her treat him. But he managed to put a little hint of arrogance into it. He was allowing it, rather than she forcing it. 

Still she crouched down to press the gauze against his head. Owen looked back at her as she stared into his eyes. 

“Is my pupil dilation all right?” he asked her. She frowned but nodded at him. Owen didn’t care how much he pissed her off by pre-empting her. He just wanted her to stay focussed on him and not Ianto. And at least he could get a fairly controlled diagnosis. What confused him was why they were so bothered about injuries. They were obviously going to be killed and strung up, their flesh taken off the bones. God, at times I can be bloody morbid, Owen thought to himself. 

“So what’s the point in doing that?” Owen asked as she carefully cleaned his wound. “You’re going to kill us. Why don’t you just knock me out permanently?” 

“This is The Harvest,” she said with a smile. “We must do it properly.” 

“And what the hell is The Harvest?” Owen asked. If he was going to die then she shouldn’t have any trouble telling him. 

“Every ten years, our tradition.” 

“Your tradition?” Owen asked. He looked around. “Only in the bloody countryside; you sick fuckers.”

Ianto whimpered. The woman’s face hardened but she got up and took the bowl of disinfectant away leaving them alone. Owen turned to look at Ianto. He was huddled so tightly that he looked close to turning himself inside out. Owen glanced at the people by the fireplace, looking like they were getting ready for a cosy night in. Lovely, he thought to himself. 

“Ianto?” Owen whispered his name. He might as well have shouted and Ianto still wouldn’t response. Ianto was lost to whatever horror he had been exposed to. Owen couldn’t get through to him and he didn’t think anyone would now. Except one person, who was getting very conspicuous by his long absence. Where the fuck was Jack? 

There was a bang as a door slammed open. Owen turned to look up. The man walked back into the room. Toshiko’s limp form was draped over his shoulder and he was pulling along a youth, early twenties, Owen guessed. He had the boy by the collar and was dragging him along without any other restraint. 

Everyone around the fireplace looked up with respect at the large man walked in. He nodded at them and grinned. He brought up a hand and slapped Toshiko’s thigh, running his hand up and down it. Since she was unconscious Toshiko couldn’t feel it but Owen felt a surge of anger at the way he was treating her. 

He never really got much chance to voice an objection, two more people arrived, a man and a woman, and they joined in the companionable group, drinking tea while the man brought Toshiko into the back room. He crouched down and dropped her onto the floor, laying her out. 

“I won’t tell anyone!” the youth yelped as he was backed into a corner. The blonde woman shushed him down, settling him as she tried to do Ianto. Owen looked at him, something was very wrong here. 

“Who’s he?” Owen demanded. 

“Just meat,” the man said dismissively. He reached out to touch the youth’s head as he cowered. That gentle touched seemed to pin him down. The man turned to Owen, smiling again, his eyes lit up with fanatical madness. “In the end we’re all just meat.” 

He was preaching like some sort of religious leader. As if he really meant the words, and as if, honestly, he really saw himself in the same way. Owen gazed at him in shock. Only starting to struggle as he moved towards Ianto. 

“No!” Owen roared. 

Ianto shrieked into the gag. But there was no where for him to go as he was grabbed and pulled forward across the floor and forced into a kneeling position. Owen watched in horror and then his gaze moved as Toshiko stirred. She looked up and gasped. Ianto howled as he was pulled back against the man, his chin gripped firmly. 

“Come on now lad, time to be bled. Like veal, takes a long time but…” 

He paused. Owen watched his face, concentrating on his audience. Himself, Toshiko, the frightened boy, the mad villagers and Ianto. But it faded, the smirk on his face faded as Ianto’s head was drawn back to expose his throat. Ianto had gone still and silent. He had stopped fighting and screaming. He let his throat be exposed as the man grabbed for the nearest blade to bring to his throat and he looked down in triumph. 

That look faded as he met Ianto’s eyes. They were suddenly calm, composed and screaming with a rage that was not his own. 

Ianto had ignored it for so long, that strange taste in the air, the odd humming. If he had been thoughtful enough at the time he might have taken it to be something to do with the rift. At first he thought it was his own stress at what he had to do. Then he thought it was the stress of what he was going through, with the loss of Lisa. 

At that moment, he knew it was something else. It was in the air, surging around him like a tornado that only he could feel. The eyes that gazed up at his tormentor were not entirely his own, because Ianto could suddenly feel it. 

He could feel Jack. Jack was coming, Jack could feel that he was alive and he could find him in the dark. 

And at that moment, the ground started to tremble.


	5. Chapter 5

“What the fuck?” An angry voice said over his head. 

Owen breathed a sigh of relief as Ianto was thrown aside. He landed heavily but as his eyes met Owen’s, Owen saw the calm composure fade away, as the ground shaking was followed by an explosion somewhere. Even Owen cowered as shots rang through the air. He was a little protected in the back room. Toshiko lying face down on the floor was fine, and Ianto was huddled on the other side of the table. None of them should get hit, but Owen took the risk. He shouldered the table heavily. He felt it rock and something on top shuddered. 

He paused, sounds still ringing around him. Ianto was on the other side. If he rocked the table too much he was at risk of being hit with whatever was there. Owen vaguely remembered a few jars sitting there, that he didn’t want landing on Ianto. He paused to reassess the situation, the sound of gunfire was slowly echoing away. Looking up he saw the tractor that had smashed through the large doorway. Jack was flanking one side of the room, Suzie the other. They moved efficiently both of them almost linked together, knowing what the other was doing exactly. 

Now and again when they worked like that it made Owen shiver. It was, in many ways, that they were the duplicate and opposites of each other all at the same time. There was something very wrong with that, Owen thought. But he didn’t spend too much time worrying about that. Instead he struggled with the handcuffs holding him. He wanted to get to Ianto. He had looked oddly calm a few moments ago and now, thanks probably to the noise of the gunshots adding to his shock, he had regressed slightly. 

Owen tried to heft the table again, and again he heard the jars on top rock ominously. He looked to Toshiko who was already crawling towards him. She pulled something from her pocket and started to fiddle with the lock on the handcuffs. 

“Are you all right?” Owen asked her, as the echoes of the shots died down. Toshiko nodded. 

“What the hell is wrong with you people?!” Jack’s voice roared. Owen pulled himself free of the cuff and went the shortest route to Ianto. He crawled under the table, nearly banging his head as he came out the other side. He moved to Ianto, who cringed away from him. His eyes weren’t very focussed, Owen noticed. A little cruelly he checked Ianto’s head for injuries before thinking about releasing him. It was easier that way. Ianto shrieked and sobbed as Owen touched him. 

“Ianto?” Toshiko came in around the table. Ianto howled, Owen held up his hand to ward her off. 

“Don’t… he’s… he’s too frightened to realise…” Owen paused and looked up. Jack was looming over the man who seemed to be the ringleader, and then he looked up and glared at the youth who was sobbing quietly in the corner. Jack straightened up to move over to him. 

“Jack!” Owen roared his name. For a moment Jack didn’t hear him, he was too focussed on what he was doing. Owen saw the anger in him, his jaw set and blue eyes blazing. 

“Jack! I need you over here!” Owen shouted. “Ianto…” 

That was the magic word. Jack’s head snapped round, and his eyes widened as he saw Owen, and Ianto struggling to try and get away from him. He was far too terrified to really comprehend what was going on around him. Owen guessed Jack would do better in getting through to him. 

Jack moved around Toshiko, taking her gently by the shoulders to move her back. She watched in shock, sympathy written on her face, and then she turned away and looked around at the havoc that Suzie and Jack had wreaked. Suzie was moving through the villagers calmly assessing wounds and making sure those that were still alive stayed down. 

Toshiko backed off, looking around, wondering what she could do. Suzie glanced at her. 

“Find a phone if you can, call the police and an ambulance, to deal with this lot.” 

Suzie looked around, her face telling Toshiko that she’d rather do something else to them. Toshiko looked around, wondering where the hell to go. 

“Search upstairs,” Suzie ordered. 

“Toshiko, help me here!” Jack shouted. Suzie nodded at her. 

Jack had moved over to where Owen and Ianto were. Owen moved back as Jack came close, crouching down. Owen backed away, looking around, presuming he would be needed elsewhere, but for now he stayed where he was. If Ianto needed help, he was getting it before any of these bastards got anything. 

“Ianto?” Jack reached for him. Ianto curled up, screaming into the gag in his mouth, tears rolling down his cheeks. Jack ignored his struggles and pulled him close, cradling Ianto gently. 

“Ianto, it’s me, you’re all right, I’m here, it’s Jack.” 

Jack spoke gently. He put an arm around Ianto’s shoulders, lifting him close. Ianto whimpered and cried. Jack reached up to pull the gag out of his mouth. 

“No… please…” Ianto’s voice was rough, like it had been used just a little too much. Jack gently caressed his face, Ianto flinched, but Jack carried on holding him.

“Ianto, listen to me, it’s Jack. You’re safe now, I’m here.” 

He still whimpered and struggled but as Jack’s grip tightened he stopped fighting. At the call Toshiko came running. Jack lifted Ianto further, cradling his head and Ianto pressed his face into Jack’s chest. 

“Get those bloody things off him,” Jack said to Toshiko nodding at the handcuffs. 

Ianto whimpered again at Toshiko started to work. Jack kissed the top of his head and carried on gently calming him. Owen desperately wanted to get in to look at him but anyone else crowding in was going to panic him again. Instead Owen ducked down and dodged under the table again. He moved out to look around. He assessed the wound on the blonde woman’s shoulder. She yelped as he touched it. 

“Don’t expect sympathy,” Owen snapped at her. He looked up at Suzie as she came close. 

“Can you control the bleeding?” Suzie asked. 

“I don’t see why I should but all right.” 

“I’ll search the house. Did you find the SUV?” 

“The signal said about half a mile past the house, but until it gets lighter I don’t advise looking for it. Unless we find the tracker, it has to be here somewhere.” 

Suzie nodded and went out to search the rest of the house. Owen glanced back over to Jack. He was still holding Ianto. 

Ianto gasped in pain as his arms were freed. He had been handcuffed for most of the day, his shoulder muscles had tensed and stiffened. Jack gently moved him as Toshiko released him. One look sent her away and Jack lifted him to cradle him again forcing Ianto to move his shoulders. He yelped and started to cry. 

“Hey, come on, listen to me, Ianto. Look at me!” 

Jack moved him again, one arm going around Ianto to pull him close and the other caressed his jaw, lifting his head. Impulsively Jack leant down and kissed Ianto on his lips. He pressed down gently, softly tracing over Ianto’s lips. Then he pulled back. 

“Come on Ianto, come back to me,” Jack whispered and gently kissed him again. This time Ianto lurched up. His lips pressed against Jack’s moving in panic and he gave a muffled protest. Jack pulled back and looked at him. Ianto blinked, his eyes rolled and then he focussed back on Jack. 

“Hi,” Jack said. He sat Ianto up a little further and he winced as his shoulders strained. 

“Jack,” Ianto breathed his name as a sigh of relief. He tried to lift his arm to hold onto him but he wasn’t strong enough. But Jack had no intention of putting him down just yet. 

“Hey!” Toshiko yelled. Jack turned. Ianto winced as his muscles were pulled as Jack moved, but he kept hold of him. From the safety of Jack’s grip he watched as Toshiko restrained a young man who looked panicked as he tried to get away. Ianto looked around at the devastation that had been caused. Jack instinctively pulled Ianto’s face round into his chest, trying to hide the awful scene from him. 

“Kieran!” Jack yelled. “Sit!” 

Slowly he moved. Getting up and trying to gently disengage himself from Ianto. 

“No, please… no.” Ianto scrabbled to hold onto him. Jack turned back. 

“I’m not going anywhere okay, you’re safe Ianto.” 

Ianto looked like he didn’t believe him in the slightest. Jack held him tightly, he ran his fingers over Ianto’s face again, and down his neck to the collar of his shirt. Ianto blinked and shuddered. 

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Jack whispered to him. “I should never have brought you. It’s my fault.” 

“Jack!” Suzie called him and Jack turned. He lifted Ianto with him. He couldn’t let him go. Not just yet anyway. 

“I’ve found a phone, I called the police. I gave them the location and I also found this,” she held up the Torchwood tracking device. “I’ve got the location of the SUV.” 

“I need proper medical equipment Jack,” Owen said. Jack nodded, then he looked down at Ianto, who he still had gently cradled against his chest. 

“Can you stand?” 

Ianto shuddered, “I don’t know.” His voice came out low and shaky. “My legs....” He hissed with pain as Jack gently touched his thigh. Jack couldn’t see any blood, or obvious damage but it was clearly painful for him. 

“What happened?” 

Ianto swallowed heavily and raised his eyes to look at Jack, then he glanced at Owen and the others. His eyes filled with tears and it became clear that Ianto didn’t want to start casually talking about it to an audience. Jack held him closer and took a firm grip around Ianto’s waist. 

“I’m gonna get you on your feet now okay?” 

Ianto nodded. He clung to Jack as he slowly got up, pulling Ianto with him. By the dull look of Ianto’s eyes, it hurt but he didn’t complain as Jack got him onto his feet and Ianto wavered dangerously. He looked around. The table had been overturned and two people lay dead on the floor. The others were in various states. Ianto looked in fascination at the shotgun wound on the blond woman’s shoulder. Owen was treating it roughly, making her squirm and wince. 

“Jack!” 

Kieran’s yelp made him turn, and his move was utter instinct. He had retrieved his gun from Kieran and now he pulled it free and lifted it as the ringleader lurched up, grabbing for a knife. Jack turned, still keeping Ianto steady with one arm and without blinking or flinching fired. 

The bullet took the man directly between the eyes and he crumpled without a sound. Ianto looked at Jack, feeling a combination of horror and admiration. Jack’s jaw was set, his eyes blazed with fury and he stared down at the corpse. He inhaled deeply, his eyes calming but the look of satisfaction stayed on his face. 

He looked up at Suzie who didn’t appear to be disturbed by the scene. Ianto wavered on his feet and Jack quickly moved to stabilize him to keep him upright, he again turned Ianto’s head to try and prevent him looking at any of the horrors in the room. 

“Suzie, if you have enough light, or can find a torch, go and get the SUV. Owen make sure no one else is likely to die, Toshiko keep an eye on him,” Jack nodded at Kieran. “I haven’t finished with him yet. Can you walk?” 

The last three words, directed at Ianto were spoken gently, a coaxing request rather than a direct, brutal command. Ianto nodded, he didn’t care what he had to do to get out, he just wanted to leave. 

“Okay, I’m going to get you out of here.” 

With that, Jack slowly and gently got Ianto out of the slaughterhouse into the cool dawn air. 

XxxxxxxxxxX

Dawn saw them in the village. The ambulances had carted off some of the bodies and injured. Some still remained as the police searched the village and surrounding area. 

Jack watched what was going on from the upstairs window of one of the cottages. In the bedroom next door Ianto got a little privacy while one of the paramedics looked him over. Something had obviously happened and Owen had pointed the finger at the blonde woman. Jack rather wished he’d killed her and not her husband – the apparent ringleader. 

Everyone was moving down below, but they all hung around in a state of shock and limbo. They were all waiting for Jack. He had left Kieran in the pub, guarded by Suzie and a police officer. Jack wanted answers from him. Jack knew the human race could be brutal at times but this… this was beyond his comprehension. 

He turned as he heard the door open next door. Owen had looked a little miffed when Ianto had refused to be examined by him. It was only with a severe amount of gentle coaxing that Ianto had consented to be looked over by the paramedic. Jack just guessed that someone impersonal would be far better, rather than Owen, who seemed to take injuries to his teammates with great offense. 

Jack moved onto the landing of the little cottage. It would have been very picturesque, had it not been for the corpses that had been left lying around. It really kind of ruined the quaint little image for Jack. 

“Well, isn’t this going to be a wonderful shrine for all the sickos out there,” Owen had commented as he had looked around the village. Jack found it hard to disagree. 

“Well?” he asked the paramedic now. He blocked the exit, folding his arms across his chest. He didn’t want to be lied to. The man looked at him for a moment as if trying to see something in Jack. Whether he saw it or not he sighed heavily and started talking. 

“He’s been given one hell of a beating somewhere along the way. There’s bruising all over his legs and buttocks, up over to the small of his back. Nothing’s broken, but he’s going to ache for a while. Do you know what happened?” 

Jack shook his head. “He hasn’t told me yet.” 

“I would also say he’s suffering from severe shock but that would be stating the obvious. They didn’t aim for any joints and they weren’t out to cripple him. They’ve just bruised up his flesh. I would suggest taking him to hospital but he’s adamant he doesn’t want to go.”

Jack sighed. “We’ll look after him, we’ve got our own doctor he can give him anything he needs.” 

The paramedic flinched. “I’ve given him a painkiller, that I didn’t give him any choice on, but I’d say the psychological effect will be worse than the physical. The bruises will heal, it may take a while and he’s going to be very tender. Whoever did this went to town on him, really brutally, but it was calculated and well executed. I’d say it wasn’t the first time they’d done it to someone.” 

Jack flinched. 

“If there’s any sign of anything wrong internally then get him to a hospital, pronto. I’d force him now but…” 

Jack frowned as he paused. “What?” 

“I’ve heard rumours about you lot, what you’re capable of.” 

That made Jack flinch. It probably didn’t look good, not the body in the cellar, or the man he shot in the slaughterhouse – although he could claim self-defence on that one – and the brutally tortured man the police had found in the pub. When Jack had wanted answers he had wanted them quick, so he got them. 

“My concern here is Ianto,” he told the paramedic. “But since it took me nearly half an hour to persuade him to be examined by you I don’t think he’d take a hospital trip very well.” 

“Just… any further worries, get him checked out.” 

Jack grimaced and with a polite nod of his head he stepped aside to allow the paramedic to leave. He waited while the stairs creaked as he moved downstairs. Then Jack went to the door and knocked tentatively, opening it just a fraction. 

“Ianto?” Jack asked gently. 

“I’m all right Jack.” His voice was a little shaky. Jack pushed the door open further and put his head round. Ianto was just fastening up his jeans, his shirt was open and it was taking him a little while to straighten himself up. 

“Can I come in?” 

Ianto nodded, concentrating on what he was doing. Jack saw his hands shaking, he desperately wanted to help but he thought the closeness of that might freak Ianto out a little, and he’d clearly had quite enough of that. 

“Are you all right?” 

Ianto nodded, but his face and body seemed to rather disagree with that quick answer. Jack stepped into the room and shut the door. Not that anyone was likely to disturb them. Ianto glanced out of the window, at the movement below. 

“The paramedic wanted you to go to hospital.” 

Ianto turned to look at Jack. He looked panicked at the mere idea of that. 

“I don’t want to Jack. He says I’m just bruised, I’ll be fine!” Ianto hurriedly finished fastening his trousers and pulled his shirt straight. There was the sound of a seam ripping. “Shit!” Ianto swore, almost on the verge of tears. 

“Come here,” Jack said. He moved a little closer, making sure Ianto was aware of his advance. He straightened Ianto’s shirt and efficiently fastened up the buttons. It was a little filthy after the events of the day. Jack got the feeling Ianto would be a lot happier when he could get home and changed. He glanced up into Ianto’s distressed face. 

“No one’s going to make you do anything you don’t want to.” 

“I just want to get the hell out of here.” 

“That’s a notion that’s seconded, and probably thirded, fourthed and fifthed.” 

Ianto gave a wan smile, it didn’t last, his eyes filled with tears. Jack did the only thing he could think of, he very gently put his arms around Ianto’s shoulders and stepped close to him, to hug him. Jack felt Ianto’s arms slide around his waist and he very tentatively pressed close to him. Jack ran a hand up to gently run his fingers through Ianto’s hair. 

“I’m sorry, I should have sent you to London, you’d have been safe there.” 

Ianto gave a light snort of laughter, as if he didn’t believe that in the slightest.

“I’m all right Jack, it’s just…” Ianto paused, took a breath and carried on talking. “You don’t really see any of this in London. It’s just like a glorified admin centre there, especially since the disturbance closed up.” 

Jack winced. It was a hell of a lot more active in Cardiff, with the rift. He got a worrying vision of the entirety of the Torchwood Institute turning up on his doorstep. If that happened he was moving to London, and taking his team with him.

“It’s always been a glorified admin centre. There’s only one reason that Torchwood Tower was built in London.” Jack felt Ianto stir, but he wasn’t about to say anymore. He pulled back from Ianto and looked at him. His eyes were still a dull, flat colour, his pupils slightly dilated. The painkillers were probably kicking in, which would ease his physical feelings but he needed to get Ianto out of here. Jack got the feeling that everyone wanted to escape this place. He moved his arm so he could put it around Ianto’s waist. 

“Come on, let’s get you downstairs, I have one thing I need to do before we leave. It won’t take long.” 

Ianto nodded, he put his arm around Jack’s shoulders and let Jack help him down the stairs and out of the tiny, quaint little cottage. The light was so bright that morning, sunlight trailed in through the back windows, streaming through the tidy, white net curtains. It lit the little tiny rooms that seemed so delicate and quaint. So much so that it made the horrors around them all the more prolific. 

Ianto didn’t look around as Jack led him downstairs. He didn’t look at the pictures, photographs and knick-knacks that denoted the normal life that revolved around the little community. He didn’t want to see that. He didn’t want to see these people as people, that raised children, that worked together and probably gathered at the pub. He didn’t want to know about that because they were so brutal. They couldn’t even be called animals. 

They were predators but not in that sense, animals killed to survive. These people killed for pleasure, that they thought could not be avoided. Ianto knew the deepest part of it. He had been with them the longest. Whatever had gone on, his rapport of horror lay with Helen Sherman, wife of Evan Sherman, leader of the pack, and his wife playing a close second. 

Ianto knew them better than anyone. 

As Jack started to lead them outside he almost back-peddled, but he couldn’t because Ianto couldn’t take the movement, so they watched as the local policeman was wheeled away and placed in an ambulance. Ianto gazed with open, wide and frightened eyes. Maybe Jack could lie and say he was innocent in the proceedings; that the villagers had tortured him, but it wouldn’t work. Jack looked at Huw, his eyes open, glassy and vacant from the drugs, a bloody dressing on his stomach where Jack had cut him, almost ripping out his intestines. He could have kept him alive for days, suffering, with all his organs on show. 

It was what he had vowed to do unless he found everyone he cared about alive. What he had done had been swift, and brutal. Jack, knowing he had no time, had simply procured a location from the policeman. Nothing more. Then he had left him, in a position that he would survive, in case he had needed to come back. 

Despite the drugs, as the man was loaded into the ambulance, when he saw Jack he cringed. It was all he could do, so immobilised as he was. Jack watched carefully, before turning to look at Ianto. Ianto flinched and looked away, staring down at the neatly paved floor outside the cottage door. He didn’t pull away from Jack but it was clear he knew, and understood somehow exactly what Jack had done.

Ianto however didn’t comment. They waited until the man was loaded up and the ambulance slowly moved out, taking the little road that led away from the village. Jack moved Ianto forward a little, Ianto went with him, leaning on Jack, staying close to him, looking around at the chaos of police cars, ambulances and finally the SUV parked up a little away from the rest of the vehicles as if the car itself had chosen to be apart. It was a stark contrast, sleek, indifferent and powerful, to all the emergency vehicles that scattered themselves around. 

Jack led Ianto to it, opening the passenger door and helping him in. Ianto allowed it, saying nothing, too tired to argue, or care what happened next.

“Toshiko, stay with him!” Jack ordered. He then turned back to Ianto, gently putting a hand against his cheek. Ianto rolled his eyes to look into Jack’s. They were gentle and concerned. Ianto tried to smile to reassure Jack he was all right. Jack leant up and kissed him lightly, but lingeringly on the forehead before pulling back and meeting his eyes again. 

“I won’t be long, and then I’m going to take you out of here.”


	6. Chapter 6

Jack entered the pub. The lighting was dim, kept to an utter minimum. Suzie was lingering by the bar. The police officer was just by the door. He straightened up as Jack walked in, looked him up and down and then backed off slightly. Suzie nodded at him and without a word he scurried away. 

“Making friends?” Jack asked her pleasantly. 

“Not really,” Suzie said. She glanced at Kieran. He sat quietly at a table in the centre of the room. Jack glanced at Suzie and then inclined his head at the bar. He raised his eyebrows looking very pointedly at the rows of optics at the back. 

Suzie’s jaw dropped, she rolled her eyes and shook her head. But still, without saying a word she moved around the bar to get a bottle and glass. All the while Jack could imagine what she was thinking. 

Jack smirked at the thought. It was not a nice smirk either, Kieran saw it and looked down, staring at the worn but well polished table top. 

“I’m not a bloody barmaid,” Suzie muttered under her breath as she rooted out a glass and then a bottle of Cognac. She just picked up the first thing she found and it didn’t really matter. Kieran flinched as she moved around the table and dumped the bottle and glass in front of Jack. 

“Thank you.” 

Suzie didn’t acknowledge him, she just moved back to her position at the bar, watching Jack intently. It was these moments she watched him, with the intensity she did when viewing a lab experiment. What she looked for, Jack didn’t know, and didn’t really want to ask about. Instead he looked at Kieran. 

Jack reached out and opened the bottle pouring out a generous measure into the glass, which he then pushed towards Kieran. Slowly the boy reached for it, taking it carefully and sipping at it, grimacing as the strong taste hit the back of his throat. 

“Since I reported this, and we were here first, I have certain controls over this investigation,” Jack said in a very pleasant tone. Kieran stopped sipping the drink and looked at him, his eyes growing steadily wider. 

“And my organisation, has a little more influence than the police in certain areas. They could make you an accessory to this.” 

Jack’s tone of voice stayed highly conversational, the tone moving almost to flirtatious as he smiled at Kieran. But the smile didn’t meet his eyes. The blue eyes stayed cold, thinking over what had been done to Ianto. The others had gone through shocks but Ianto had suffered the most. If Jack hadn’t left him then maybe it would have been different, but that sort of thinking could drive him mad. Besides, he wasn’t expecting people to be casually going around kidnapping people with an aim to slaughter them. Why should he have worried about leaving Ianto alone for ten minutes? 

“I didn’t know!” 

“Oh really?” Jack asked pleasantly. “According to Huw this was supposed to be your initiation.” 

Kieran flinched and took another hefty swallow of alcohol. 

“Was it?” Jack asked flatly. Kieran looked up, and then down. The glass in his hand was shaking violently making the liquid rock from side to side. Kieran said nothing. Jack glared at him; he leant forward, resting his arm on the table.

“I can make this better or worse for you, by what you tell me. I have the power to stick you away in a tiny little cell and you would never see the light of day again, regardless of if you have done, or not done anything. So tell me!” 

“This year, this time. I was only eight last Harvest,” Kieran said. 

“Did you know what that meant?” Jack asked. Kieran shook his head. 

“No, I was living away at the time, my mother moved away.” 

“When?” Jack asked. 

“I was seven,” Kieran said. He swallowed the rest of the drink. Jack reached over to the bottle and poured out another generous measure. 

“Is it fair to say that your mother probably found out what was going on, or going to happen?” 

Kieran shrugged and looked away, his jaw set and the muscles flickered with tension. 

“She never said, she never seemed frightened, but she wasn’t born here, my dad was.” 

“And you dad is?” 

“Martin, the Landlord. The one you shot.” 

If Jack had blinked, he’d have missed the dark look in Kieran’s eyes, as he mentioned his father. Jack sat back in the chair. That, he hadn’t been expecting but as he caught Suzie’s eye something came back to him. Of what she had said when they had been investigating what was going on. When she had phoned the brewery they had told her a young man helped picked up the delivery quite regularly. Jack looked back down. 

That would mean that Kieran had been around in the village recently, in the run up to the Harvest. Jack frowned at the term. Huw had babbled it several times. 

“So what is the Harvest?” 

“Didn’t Huw tell you?” 

“I wasn’t too interested what you were all doing at that moment, other than with me looking to put a stop to it. And save my friends,” Jack said. Kieran looked away. 

“What is the Harvest?” Jack repeated the question. Kieran glanced at him. 

“Every ten years, target those passing through, who are likely to disappear and…” Kieran paused and shrugged. 

“Butcher them?” Jack asked. Kieran looked at him, his eyes meeting Jack’s levelly for the first time. 

“I dare say you understand that.” 

“Understand what?” 

“The darkness, the need for power, to control, to kill,” Kieran almost snarled at him. 

Jack glared at him for a moment. Kieran had seen the devastation that Jack had wreaked on the villagers. Jack could justify it, to himself and to his team mates but he wasn’t quite sure he could to Kieran.

“So why did it start? How did it start?” 

“What?” Kieran asked, blinking in shock at the sudden change of course Jack took. 

“There must have been a reason. Surely your ancestors didn’t suddenly, randomly decide to slaughter people once a decade just for something to do.”

Kieran sat back in the chair slightly. “Years ago, when the rain was bad and the harvest failed. All the people in the village were threatened with eviction. They had nowhere else to go and the landlord was… he was planning to evict them, at the behest of his mistress.” 

“So they killed them, the landlord and the mistress?” 

Kieran nodded. “And they didn’t know what to do with the bodies.” 

“So they slaughtered them?” Jack said. “They cut them up and sold the meat on, or used it to pay their debts.” 

“It was so popular. Like Sweeny Todd my dad said. They loved the taste.” 

“So since then? Why every decade?” 

“It was just the way the leasing laws worked and then it just became… tradition.” 

“And they’d use all that meat. Seventeen people, all butchered to feed you, right through until the next decade.” 

“It used to be that…” Kieran started and then stopped, lapsing into silence. Jack reached out and topped up his glass again. 

“What?” Jack asked. Kieran swallowed the glass of liquid. 

“When, we had enough. Enough to feed the village. It would stop but Evan… couldn’t. It was like that last time.”

“Ten years ago, we have reports from then,” Jack said. Now they had the SUV they had been given a chance to do some research. The one place Jack hadn’t looked was the back files of the police computer database. Why would he? Seventeen sudden deaths with no evidence or sign of anything. That was bizarre and alien, or at least it should have been. Instead it was real, human and messy. 

Toshiko had found the reports from the last decade. Twenty people had gone missing. Jack leant forward. 

“Twenty people, did they stop at twenty people or did they take out someone else? Kieran… your mother disappeared a year after you left, just in time for the Harvest. You went to live with your father afterwards.” 

“I didn’t know!” 

“Really?” 

“I didn’t. I was a kid, I missed her, he…” Kieran put his head into his hands and his entire body shook with the memory. 

“What was your role then?” 

“What?” 

“Last night, I dare say there was no co-incidence finding you in the village. What were you meant to do?” 

Kieran shuddered. “I didn’t want to! They made me!”

“Tell me! I want to know!” 

“I can’t!” 

“Yes, you can, just tell me,” Jack said. Kieran’s eyes froze, he glared at Jack. But Jack stared back utterly immobile. 

“I was to stay in the village. You were separated and I was to get you to the house, when they were ready. Huw jumped in without thinking.” 

“After you had butchered Ianto, Owen and Tosh? Then we would be brought up to be dealt with as well, or would you butcher us in the village? Or were those corpses for decoration?” 

Jack sat back, he couldn’t deal with the grief. It was not what he was programmed for. But he new one thing, as he sat there and talked, Kieran was taken, by the village. 

He was trying to fight it, and the shock was disorienting him but it was there. Jack couldn’t leave him to his own devices because he would come back here, and somehow, it would start again. 

Slowly Jack stood up. There was no resolution. No fix. It wasn’t alien, he couldn’t fight it. Jack had long ago learnt that human nature was one thing he couldn’t control.

“I’ll make sure you’re comfortable,” Jack said. Kieran looked at him in shock. 

“Jack?” he tried to stand up but the alcohol made him wobble. Jack went to the door and opened it onto the bright morning. The police officer was waiting outside. 

“He’s all yours and… look after him. It’s not his fault really. Just keep him separate from the rest of them before he makes his statement.” 

“Aren’t you taking him?” the officer asked. 

“No, he’s all yours, they’re all yours. I’m taking mine home. Suzie!” 

“Jack.” 

“Let’s go.” 

Jack walked out of the pub and went to the SUV. Toshiko stood next to Ianto, the passenger side open and she was holding his hand gently. Owen was talking with the remaining paramedics but as Jack and Suzie walked out he went over to them. 

“Get in,” Jack said. 

Toshiko left Ianto as Jack moved close. The three of them, Suzie, Owen and Toshiko organised themselves, arguing as to who was to sit where and making sure all the equipment was in the back. Jack went to Ianto, taking his hand, clasping Ianto’s nearest hand in both his own. 

“Are you all right?” 

“Can we go home Jack?” 

“Yes we can, are you all right Ianto, do you feel all right?” 

Ianto’s head rested back against the headrest and he looked at Jack in a slightly sleepy fashion. Owen, as he climbed in the back, looked a little embarrassed, he had slipped something to Ianto, which Jack couldn’t argue with. So instead he squeezed Ianto’s hand gently. Ianto’s eyelids fluttered but that was the only reaction he gave. 

“Time we went home.” 

Jack started the SUV and got out of the village and onto the road home. But as he passed the pub he caught Kieran’s eye, as the youth was led out to the police van. 

In ten years time. In ten years, Jack would come back. Just to make sure. He’d watch and wait, and it wouldn’t happen again. Jack would make sure of it. 

The Harvest would never return.


End file.
